Daschle catches flak from Dubya’s yes-men for stating the patently obvious – that this administration’s amateurish diplomacy has embarrassed us before the world and led us to the brink of a globally unpopular, non-UN-sanctioned war. (And as David Chess pointed out by way of Medley, “the idea that the U.S. must defy the U.N. in order to punish Iraq for defying the U.N. is simply absurd.“) Of course, Daschle’s comments notwithstanding, there’s also a convincing case to be made (as Maureen Dowd does here) that the Bushies wanted diplomacy to fail from the very beginning, so as to further weaken the UN’s international standing. Inept or corrupt…take your pick. Update: Kerry gets involved as well, although, in what’s becoming a troubling pattern, he’s hedged his bets a bit.