Speaking of making sense,

yesterday's quote of the day sprang to life as I was watching the Friday night NewsHour debate between Mark Shields and David Brooks. I was startled to hear this masterpiece of illogic.

MARK SHIELDS: But the other thing, Jim -- one of the great ironies, the political contemporary ironies is that Donald Rumsfeld, chief of staff at the White House, secretary of defense, you know, CEO, as David pointed out, member of Congress, Dick Cheney, member of Congress, leader of the Congress, White House chief of staff, secretary of defense, vice president, Colin Powell, national security adviser, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, secretary of state, arguably the most experienced foreign policy, national security team we've ever had, and a disaster of epic, historic proportions.

It makes the case for Barack Obama. I mean, you know, experience in this case...

JIM LEHRER: Didn't work?

MARK SHIELDS: ... did not pay off for the country.

Do I have this right? Because Bush's cabinet made a mess of everything, next time we need to go for someone inexperienced? The mind boggles. And here I was thinking that the reign of Bush II was an irrefutable argument against inexperience. Shows what I know.

Also demonstrating that when democrats are in the first flush of political infatuation, intelligence can be the first casualty. As Mark Barrett so perceptively pointed out.