Condi Rice finds no love during Senate hearings.

In a heated exchange with Hagel, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, Rice disputed his characterization of Bush’s buildup as an “escalation.”

“Putting in 22,000 more troops is not an escalation?” Hagel, a Vietnam veteran and longtime critic of Bush’s Iraq policy, asked. “Would you call it a decrease?”

“I would call it, senator, an augmentation that allows the Iraqis to deal with this very serious problem that they have in Baghdad,” she said.

Hagel told Rice, “Madame secretary, Iraqis are killing Iraqis. We are in a civil war. This is sectarian violence out of control.”

She disputed that Iraq was in the throes of a civil war. To that, Hagel said, “To sit there and say that, that’s just not true.”

And that is from a Republican!

If you could see me now you could not help but notice how erect my nipples are with excitement. (Maybe it is best that you cannot see me.)

I have been dreaming of this kind of confrontation to come from the Senate since Bush first invaded Iraq. It is totally making my fucking day!

And I believe that this is just the beginning.