Drudge made the best of his advance notice of this snark-piece by Washington Post columnist Mike Allen, wherein the bird held by the Commander-in-Chief is derided as a prop.

This morning, IP has begun a roundup of rebuttals to this attempt at a scandal, including two photos of Bush handing off turkey to American troops who, according to the Post's own snide caption, "were served from steam trays." Note the stream trays approximately ten inches below Bush's hands in the two Yahoo photos. (Blogosphere 2, Drudge 1.)

Even if the turkey was primped, the idea of using a centerpiece - especially at this level of politics - is about as culinarily innocuous as throwing away the vegetables simmering with viscera to make gravy. What about the parsley? The parsley! Was it for eating, or looking? The horror! Next we'll hear about how politicians have complexion-and-feature-enhancing makeup applied to their faces for television appearances.

Speaking of would-be scandals, as I said to OX over e-mail yesterday: "Did you hear that? It was the sound of Joe Wilson's credibility, and his little frog-march scandal, going 'poof.'" It's a poignant sight to see vanity culminate in myopia.

CULINARILY INNOCUOUS: John Cole is giving the story a good broadside. But a little below his post is a commenter with military identification who pounds this rubbish into the ground like a tent peg:

Greetings from LSA Anaconda at Balad, Iraq. I too ate in a military dining facility on Thanksgiving and surprise of surprise, we also had a fully stuffed turkey on a table that was not meant for consumption. It was simply there to grace a table that was made to look like home. As JC roughly said surely there must be better grist for the leftie scandal mill than this. Keep trying though, it is so very entertaining.

Did you hear that? Sounded like a boomerang turning on the Post.

GIVE ME A BREAK: I didn't even need to look further than the Allen column itself to read the military angle:

[Officials] said the bird was not placed there in anticipation of Bush's stealthy visit, and military sources said a trophy turkey is a standard feature of holiday chow lines.

This single sentence capsizes the entire premise of a scandal, and yet it's buried under paragraphs of Allen's strung-together conspiracy theory. Ridiculous.

ANOTHER HELPING?: The Corner weighs in with some more military perspective.

A NATIONAL TRADITION SHATTERED (SNICKER): I feel as though the moon and all the stars and all the planets have fallen upon me.