INHOFE'S GOP STRATEGY: JUST DON'T READ ANYTHING

Senator James Inhofe (R-Friggin' Idiot from Oklahoma) is "outraged by the outrage" involving the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal.

Boy, I sure hope he doesn't say anything stupid! Fire away!

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," the Oklahoma Republican said at a U.S. Senate hearing probing the scandal.

Okay, he's being partisan, this is bad but not an excuse to hit your head on the desk. But let's see where this is going...

"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

*THWAK!*

That was my head. And probably yours too.

Luckily for those who might have been sucked in by Inhofe, the good people of Reuters place the relevant information in the very next paragraph of their recap:

Coalition military intelligence officers estimated that about 70 percent to 90 percent of the thousands of prisoners detained in Iraq had been "arrested by mistake," according to a report by Red Cross given to the Bush administration last year and leaked this week.

The report also said the mistreatment of prisoners apparently tolerated by U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq involved widespread abuse that was "in some cases tantamount to torture."

You can read the full Red Cross report by clicking here.

Also, CNN apparently reported that John McCain walked out of the hearings in reaction to Inhofe's comments, though that causal relationship has yet to be confirmed.

UPDATE: Digby has more on Inhofe, including a quote that puts McCain's departure in context. Digby also catches Fred Barnes in the middle of a valiant attempt to wrestle away Inhofe's "Stupidest Abu-Ghraib-Related Public Comment" award.