Look Who's Counting

And look who points it out.

White House Briefing -- News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration: "Dana Milbank writes in his Washington Post news column: 'For the 22nd time in a speech as president, Bush said we would not 'cut and run' in Iraq. For the 28th time, he said Iraq was 'the central front' in the war on terrorism. And, for the 100th time, Bush promised that 'we will prevail' against the terrorists. . . .

'His four Iraq speeches, though different in emphasis, were full of numbing repetition. Washingtonpost.com's Adrian Holovaty did a computer analysis of the four Iraq speeches and found dozens of phrases repeated in all four. Bush invoked 'democracy' 83 times, 'freedom' 68 times and 'security' 75 times. The president invoked 'victory' 10 times in the 30-minute address -- more than the six victory mentions on Monday but fewer than the 11 on Dec. 7 and the 15 on Nov. 30. . . .

'The lack of new material in Bush's speech complicated the second act in yesterday's double feature. Jack Murtha (Pa.), the Democratic congressman who has been rebutting each of the four Iraq speeches, had little to work with. 'He keeps saying the same thing over and over,' Murtha protested during his regular televised rebuttal.'"

Nothing like quoting the hand that tried to bite you. I love good snark.