Blowhard News Report for Sunday afternoon edition.

Cornyn: Iraq’s Massive $79 Billion Surplus Is A Success Of Bush’s Policies
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are upset over a new Government Accountability Office report showing that the “soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end.” Since 2003, U.S. taxpayers have spent $42 billion for the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq. In contrast, the Iraqi government has allocated $28 billion for similar improvements, but has spent less than $4 billion.

Today on CNN, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tried to spin these facts as good news and a vindication of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq:

BLITZER: Sen. Cornyn, there are a lot of Americans who feel that the Iraqis are playing the U.S. for suckers.

CORNYN: Well, I think, you know, we’ve fought long and hard to get to this position where now there is a hope that Iraq can govern and defend itself, Wolf. If we had simply quit as Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Obama wanted us to do early on, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. There wouldn’t even be the hope of a self-governing democracy of an Arab world in the Middle East. This ought to be a subject of negotiations between two sovereign powers.

FNS: Rick Davis Brags On McCain’s Maverick-ness; Facts Be Damned
It’s amazing to me that if this is the best the McCain campaign has to offer in terms of promoting his candidacy, that Barack isn’t ahead by double digits. And what does it say about the state of McCain’s campaign when FOX News isn’t even helping him out, but confronting him with *gasp* logic?

WALLACE: Does Senator McCain really believe that, that this country is worse off than we were four years ago?

DAVIS: Sure, all along the trail, John McCain campaigns around real people. He goes to town halls, he hears what they have to say to him. You don’t have to be in very many town halls, Chris, to understand that people are pinched by the increase in gas prices, they’re losing jobs because of some downturn in manufacturing, and the economy as a whole has been very hard on the American family. That’s what John McCain’s referring to. He doesn’t have to go very far every day to find those kind of examples.[..]

WALLACE: Given that, if the country’s worse off, isn’t both the President and John McCain, aren’t they both responsible?

Whoops! I don’t think Davis wants to be backed into this particular corner. His response? Beyond lame.

DAVIS: Well, look, if you want to talk about history, then you can make all the cases you want to make.

History? His own ad asks if we’re better off four years ago and then Davis doesn’t want to go into the fact that McCain’s voted FOR the policies that have put us in this position. So what’s an uber- lobbyist turned campaign manager to do to deflect this cognitive dissonance? Reach into the bag and pull out the tried-and-true, “But he’s such a Maverick™!” meme:

DAVIS: Let me remind you too, there’s been never a bigger maverick in this town than John McCain. I mean, we talk about how many times you voted for Bush or against Bush. But you’ve been in this town a long time. Who is the biggest irritant to this administration for the last ten years or last eight years? John McCain. He sided with Democrats when he thought they were doing the right thing for the country, he sided with Republicans when he thought they were doing the right thing for the country. So you can say all you want about the record, but who is the one proven commodity in this town who’s willing to put his country first and take strong positions, sometimes against the current administration or his own party in order to do what’s right? And that’s been McCain.