Really, who would have thunk it?
BAGHDAD — The head of al Qaeda's Iraq operations yesterday gloated in a new audio tape over the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and praised U.S. voters for punishing President Bush and the Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections.
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, in the first public statement by a senior al Qaeda figure since the vote, said in an Internet-posted recording that his group now had 22,000 armed fighters and reserves in Iraq and taunted Mr. Bush not to copy Mr. Rumsfeld and "flee the battlefield."
They prefer the Democrats, who plan to flee the battlefield.
In neighboring Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also expressed satisfaction with the Democratic gains in the U.S. vote, calling them a boon for Tehran.
"The issue in these elections was not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world," the Iranian leader said in remarks to the ISNA news agency.
"Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation," the hard-line cleric added.
The only thing that could have made both groups happier was if Jimmy Carter was elected President again.
But don't call Democrats weak on national defense. They might hit you with their man purses.
