Man, there is just so much crazy crap issuing from the right wing this morning.

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Bill Frist criticized CNN for causing the GOP’s low poll numbers:

Well, you know, it’s part of my job and your job and your whole coming into this was, again, saying [from] Harry Reid that we are spending all of our time on marriage — which is important. That we’re spending all of the time on flag without mentioning what we’ve done of the floor for six weeks. Iraq, the war on terror, making you safer… where’s your coverage of that? What you do is concentrate on things that are spun to you from the other side of the aisle and that’s why that message doesn’t get out.

So Frist and the GOP make huge issues of gay marriage and flag-burning amendments, shutting down other legislation so they can get these election-year fake issues in the face of the voters, ballyhoo it all over the press and generally make a big deal of it… and then blame the news media for not covering the other stuff they do but don’t publicize.

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And if you think that’s a classic case of a politician being an ass, check this out: Pennsylvania Republican Representative Curt Weldon hears from Dave Gaubatz, a former civilian investigator for the Air Force in Iraq in 2003, who claims that he had a hot tip on four possible sites where WMD caches may have been buried in Iraq. The military didn’t agree that the caches were likely, so Gaubatz goes to Weldon and GOP Representative Hoekstra, and tells the tale.

What does Weldon do? Does he get on the back of the military to check out the site? Does he inform the media? Does he get started on legislative action?

Nope. He sees it as a “personal political venture,” and gets it into his head that he, Hoekstra, Gaubatz, and three Iraqi nationals will travel to the four sites, shovels in hand, and dig up the WMD themselves, just like a real-life Indiana Jones or something. He told Gaubatz not to inform anyone, not any other politicians, “specifically no member of the Democratic party”–not even the military. Apparently Weldon intended to say he was in Iraq to visit the troops, then would secretly duck out and unearth the WMD, becoming an instant celebrity and hero, in time for the elections.

Here’s how he laid out the handling of the publicity, according to Gaubatz:

“They even worked out how it would go. If there was nothing there, nothing would be said. If the site had been [scavenged], nothing would be said. But, if it was still there, they would bring the press corps out.”

All that ended when Gaubatz decided that Weldon was not in his right mind, and he started contacting the media and established his web site, which tells the story.