With friends like this...

...well, we really don't have any friends, do we? Not in Iraq, it seems.

Adnan Pachachi, the American government's generally accepted first choice for the Iraqi Presidency has turned down the post. Why?

The news media had portrayed him in the last several days as receiving great support from the Americans, he said, and that ruined his credibility among the people of Iraq. As a result, he added, he felt he might be viewed as illegitimate by the Iraqi people if he were to take office.

"The fact that I was portrayed as having been nominated by the Americans made me look less patriotic than the others," he said."

In other words, he was red, white and blue baited out of the picture.

If that's what the guy we wanted is saying, imagine what the guy we're getting must be thinking...