The Itchy & Scratchy show: ‘Digging For The Pony’

Following his speech on Iraq yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) held a conference call with conservative bloggers.

One blogger, Ed Morrissey, asked about efforts by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to oppose the new U.S. Baghdad security plan. According to two reports of the call, McCain repeated his prediction that Sadr wouldn’t end up opposing U.S. forces, but admitted he may be “digging for the pony.”

Ed Morrissey:

I asked the Senator whether Moqtada al-Sadr’s new orders for the Mahdi Army to attack American forces could cause a collapse of the Maliki government. McCain thinks Sadr is mostly bluffing; he waited too long and has not made a personal appearance for too long, and a defeat at the hands of the American and Iraqi forces would finish him. Joking that he was “digging for the pony here,” he predicted that Sadr would back down as he has in the past rather than take that big of a gamble.