How long is a "last throe"?

Er...is that like the last string of beads thrown by those nasty truck parades on Mardi Gras?

Making reference to Dick Cheney's glorious pontification last week that the Iraqi insurgents are (once again) in their "last throes" (so the Iraq War must surely be near an end Mr. Cheney?), Terry Moran (ABC News) stoked the fire a little to see if he could draw smoke from Scott McClellan:

Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its last throes?

MR. McCLELLAN: Terry, [lie, lie, lie]....

Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?

MR. McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.

Q But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?

MR. McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.

Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.

Q What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?

MR. McCLELLAN: Terry, [blah, blah, blah]....

Q Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.

Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a last throe lasts for?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve.

Meanwhile, monkey boy responded to Republican criticism of the Iraq War by admitting that the war was "tough" going.

That sounds like a familiar SNL parody of the debates. You know, it's "haaarrd" being the president. Workin' Saturdays. Readin' documents. Ordering takeout.