The Gig Is Up

Listening to the Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, I'm reminded of the story about the wife who comes home to find her husband in bed with another woman.

"Honey," he screams, "it's not what you think!" As if you can explain away a situation like that with something like, "she was here to test out the mattress."

It doesn't work. The gig is up.

Imagine being Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.

Coalition troops are within yards of him and he conducts daily briefings assuring anyone within earshot that the infidels have been destroyed.

A couple of days ago he was saying the airport in Baghdad was safely under Iraqi control, even as coalition troops were re-paving runways.

Then on word that coalition forces had stormed one of Saddam's palaces, he insisted it was all lies and that Americans were nowhere near Baghdad.

"The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad," al-Sahhaf said.

He talks of Iraqis in full control but has trouble speaking over the pounding bombs of coalition aircraft.

With a straight face, he conducts a briefing outside assuring all coalition aircraft have been stopped, even as they fly overhead and columns of smoke fill the air behind him.

This guy is a walking, talking Saturday Night Live skit.

But clearly there's a method to his madness: Keep telling a lie long enough and some might believe you. Maybe like that husband desperately hoping his wife might buy the story that the "babysitter was tired, so I thought I'd tuck her in."

I just wonder what happens when Baghdad does fall.

I'll give Sahhaf credit. Unlike all others who have turned tail and run, he stays, yells, yammers and defies. And all in full view, with full recognition and at full throttle.

I needed a break from this horrible war. Leave it to an Iraqi information minister with the touch of Inspector Clouseau to provide it.

Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Cavuto.