Political stunts trump policy needs...again

Someone should try to maintain a list of the number of times this administration has chosen politics over policy -- or however you want to phrase it: style over substance, fear over security, insanity over rationality, lies over truth...

A delay to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's departure from Iraq means the six powers meeting in London would be unable to conclude its business, a State Department spokesman said Friday.

Sean McCormack, traveling with Rice, said the delay meant she would arrive late for a meeting with foreign ministers from the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China. The group still planned to meet, but McCormack said they would be unable to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council as had been expected.

Plans Rice's departure from Irbil was delayed by about two hours because of mechanical problems discovered in the C-17 military transport that was supposed to ferry her to Turkey, where another jet was waiting to fly her to London.

Funny that this little side trip to -- yet again -- trumpet 'progress in Iraq' was overshadowed by violence, lack of security and a still-decaying infrastructure.

I'd be laughing at the irony if all of this weren't so tragic.