Between the Uprights

The media - in conjunction, witting or otherwise - with the Kerry campaign, keeps moving the goalposts in Iraq. They move them left, they move them right, they set them in the parking lot, they spin them around.

The President keeps hitting field goals. The media is in the press box watching footage from J-Lo's wedding.

The criteria for success in Iraq kept changing. There had to be no Stalingrad-like urban ground-combat quagmire - and the ground war was won in record time.

The war was unjustifiable without WMDs. Then we found WMDs.

The war was a war of domination. Then we set June 30 as the date for the handover of power.

The date for the handover was unrealistic because of the terrorists, especially the Sadrists and the gangs of Fallujah. Then we defeated the Sadrists, and negated the gangs of Fallujah.

The war was eclipsed by prison scandals - until it was revealed that it truly was a one-time aberration by moron thug reservists, and the whole incident reflected worse on our own civil prison system than on the occupation.

The war was all about oil. Then we handed control of all oil over to the Iraqis.

The war was illegitimate because the UN didn't approve. Then the UN bookended Resolution 1441, which justified the war originally, with yesterday's unanimous vote. The UN backed Bush's "unilateral" action.

Then the war was a farce because the Iraqis didn't really care. Except they do.

The Bush Administration keeps hitting field goals - over the stands, between two moving semis, through the lobby of the hotel, and into the storage closet where the Democrats and Media had stored the goalposts, hoping nobody would find them.