Three years ago today, I asked this question concerning the right-wing assertion that it was highly improper to criticize a president while we had troops in the field, with my own short answer:

Let’s say that a Democratic candidate wins the 2008 election, and, for a while at least, we still have soldiers on the ground in Iraq. Will Republicans lay off criticizing the president, especially on war issues, during that time?

No, I don’t think so either.

Couldn’t have called that one more right, could I have? Of course, it was a no-brainer–anyone not completely fooling themselves could have answered that spot-on. Right-wing hypocrisy is one of the true constants in the world.

If anything, the question was far too mild; while the hypocrisy was a given, it was just as sure that no one could guess the degree. In the prediction above, substitute “lay off criticizing the president” with “refrain from hysterically vehement attacks on the president, calling him a communist, fascist foreign usurper and a traitor to America,” and you’re closer. But who would have guessed such bizarrely self-contradictory drivel would have been spoken aloud, much less used as the central themes in a consistent barrage of smears aimed at the president of the United States?

But I guess if you’re an American patriot who supports the troops and puts country first, then you gotta have priorities.