When talking points go bad.

This little repetition by Hadley of an older Bush talking point yesterday, just highlighted the rhetoric over substance Iraq policy.

Hadley added that the current situation in Iraq should not slow U.S. plans to start bringing some of the 138,000 U.S. troops home, which depends upon training of Iraqi forces.

"I don't see why this should be why this should derail that process. And, of course, that is the key. As the president said, as they step up, we can step down." he said on CNN.

Now, I want the troops to get out of Iraq, but I think any statement that the Iraqi forces are standing up is completely ridiculous. Remember, it was just Saturday that the AP reported Pentagon officials saying that the number of "independent" Iraqi battalions had gone from 1 to 0.

I think what galls me the most is that this is such a typical example of rhetoric over substance out of the Bush administration. The National Security Advisor, Hadley's nominal position, is supposed to focus on gathering accurate information and advising the president, not going on the Sunday shows lying to the American people.

Shouldn't the National Security Adviser be spending his time right now trying to figure out how to resolve Iraq?

UPDATE: And if you want to know what Hadley did to get the promotion to NSA? He screwed up. How else do you get ahead in this administration?