Hobbits & Flypaper

In case you missed it:

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is apparently using "The Lord of the Rings" as his strategy manual for Iraq.

The only problem? It seems he didn't bother to actually read the books.

Yeah Ricky, I know. They're long. And they have all those damn songs.

But just watching the movie doesn't cut it. Not in ninth grade English class. And not in the U.S. Senate. (Especially if it was that cheezy cartoon version - which sounds about right given the shallow, comic-book logic.)

Matt Yglesias has the reductio ad absurdum.