Rah, Rah, Rah ... Sis Boom Bah!

Tough slogging on the war cheerleading front these days.

I mean, can't a good, healthy, loud-lunged, pom-pom-waving girl get a break?

In the Asked-and-Answered Department ...

Michael O'Hanlon, as good a pom-pom waver as there has been, is inserting himself in the news this week.

O'Hanlon has been wrong on his assessments of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation about as often as ... Well ... As the sun rises.

You may remember.

After penning (with his co-cheerleader Ken Pollack) last summer the NYT Op-Ed "A War We Just Might Win", the dynamic duo got slapped down by - of all the nerve - actually U.S. Soldiers, serving in Iraq, in their response, "The War As We Saw It" (to which O'Hanlon got a little miffed)

Yesterday, O'Hanlon just had to throw down his pom-poms and have a little cry.

O’Hanlon Gripes About His Waning Influence: I Now Get ‘Less Than One’ Interview Request Per Day

“I was getting on average three to five calls a day for interviews about the war” in the first years, said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow on national security at the Brookings Institution. “Now it’s less than one a day.”

But, with the game on, he couldn't just sit on the sidelines and weep ...

No siree Bob, it was time to pick up those pom poms, clear his throat, dry his eyes and start chanting 'Go Team Go!" again.

O’Hanlon: Surge architects are the ‘Vince Lombardis’ of Iraq war

"I want to call them the Lombardis of this war. … And in addition to Fred and Ken who have been two of the most important people. Andy Krepinevich is another important think tanker. Retired Gen. Jack Keane from the outside. A small group of people inside the administration, smaller than it should have been, but people like Meghan O’Sullivan. […]

These people did two things that I think would have made Vince Lombardi proud. One, they stuck with it, and they persevered through difficult times. And two, they stayed focused on fundamentals."

Though, actually, O'Hanlon, if he wanted to make a more accurate analogy of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation to football, he might have been better to choose Ohio State's Woody Hayes and his strategy of "three-yards and a cloud of dust".

That seems like the much more accurate view of what we have going on over there.

Obit: Former Packer Max McGee Dead At 75

Out Partying The Night Before, Not Expecting To Die

Former Green Bay Packer wide receiver Max McGee died this week, a result of an accident while clearing leaves from the roof of his home.

McGee, a little-used player for the powerhouse Packers of the early 1960's, rose to fame in the first Super Bowl, which saw the Packers crush the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, back in 1966.

Not expecting to see any action in the game, and after a night out-on-the-town, McGee was pressed into play after an injury to star receiver Boyd Dowler forced him to the sidelines.

McGee will live in posterity as the first person to score a Super Bowl touchdown, making a dazzling one-handed catch for a 37-yard TD. McGee went on to score another touchdown, ending the day with seven receptions for 138 yards.

Following his football career, Max McGee enjoyed success in developing restaurants and as a football television commentator.

According to a family friend, McGee was out partying the night before his death, getting virtually no sleep before attempting to clean the leaves from his roof.

"Max had no earthly idea he was going to die that day," said the friend.

Bonus Max McGee Links

Max McGee, former Packers receiver, dies at 75 in fall from roof

NFL Wire Notes | Green Bay teammates recall McGee

McGee Leads the Pack