Dem Touts Abu Ghraib as Political 'Silver Bullet'

Democrats on Capitol Hill are saying privately that the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal is the "silver bullet" they need to bring about President Bush's political demise this November, according to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

"I heard someone - and I would not be in a position to say who it was, but a Democrat staffer - saying, 'Aha, this is the silver bullet we've been waiting for,'" Inhofe told radio host Sean Hannity on Tuesday.

The Oklahoma Republican noted that the comment dovetails with recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. John Kerry, whose campaign now invokes U.S. abuse of Iraqi terror suspects in e-mail solicitations.

Inhofe turned Senate hearings into the prison scandal on their head on Tuesday by complaining that outrage over U.S. mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was overblown.

"We have so many people out there that are so concerned about the human rights of a bunch of people who are murderers and terrorists that I find it offensive," he told Hannity.

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