"Gimmie a B!!!"

From the Tribune:

Republicans stamped their support of President Bush's foreign policy on their index fingers, passing around a tin of purple stamp ink in homage to Iraqi voters, who marked their fingers similarly Sunday when they cast their ballots.

While both sides of the aisle applauded throughout the speech when Bush mentioned the election in Iraq, GOP members stood and wagged their purple fingers as a clear signal that the election stemmed from their president's campaign for democracy in Iraq.

Meaningless boosterism.

But what else could we expect from supporters of the Cheerleader in Chief?

More: Mark Caro, guest blogger at Eric Zorn's blog, says:

In other words, it took three days for an organic symbol of genuine sacrifice to be appropriated by self-congratulatory politicians.

What land mines and car bombs did these legislators sidestep for the privilege of dipping those fingers in purple ink? Did they symbolically sit at the front of buses during the Civil Rights Movement, too?

Next thing you know, Britney Spears will be sporting a purple finger. Oscar presenters, too. There's nothing like vicariously experiencing someone else's toils on the front lines.

I think that if Caro took a careful look at the smiling faces of Bill Frist, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay, et al, he would see that these guys didn't just symbolically sit at the front of the bus during the Civil Rights Movement.