I should have just turned off the TV when I saw the Meet the Press lineup. Charlie Rangel was just ranting on pooh-poohing the Iraqi elections. “I guess by Republican standards you can call it a good election.”

Yeah, we gotcha. You don’t get any of this.

He went on to say that going into Iraq “was all a fraud.” And “[Americans] don’t want people to die for other people’s freedom.”

Our American kids are dying and coming back without arms and legs or sight (or all of the above) to fight terrorism. I blame the White House, mind you, for not making that case better, but don’t tell the families who are giving their loved ones to this cause that it is a fraud or a waste.

Rangel’s shtick is nothing new, but I’m especially cranky to it having had the honor to spend a little time with some of these injured boys yesterday (more about them tomorrow–every American should get to meet our war-injured heroes). They did—and are doing—an important thing. And thank God we have them to do it. 8.5 million Iraqis might agree.