Video: GOP Strategist: "Irrelevant" whether Maliki is pro-Hezbollah

This afternoon on MSNBC's show Hardball, Republican strategist Ed Rogers and commentator Mike Barnicle got into a heated exchange over the Iraqi Prime Minister's indifference about the terrorist organization Hezbollah.  Rogers tried to downplay it, and blamed Democrats for ever bringing it up -- while doing his best to prevent Barnicle from even getting a word in.

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BARNICLE: "Ed, first of all, the Israeli Lebanon conflict is not a sideshow."

ROGERS: "It is for the Prime Minister of Iraq."

BARNICLE: "Second --"

ROGERS: "Sure it is."

BARNICLE: "Well then why did he inject himself into it by issuing a statement in support of Hezbollah."

ROGERS: "He made a mistake.  His foreign ministers come back and tidy it up."

BARNICLE: "Ed."

ROGERS: "He was here to say thank you.  Thank you to America.  Let's give him that."

BARNICLE: "Ed, before he --"

ROGERS: "Let him go back to what he needs to go."

BARNICLE: "Ed, could you take a breath?  Please?"

ROGERS: "I'm breathing."

BARNICLE: "Before he got here to say thank you, he injected himself into this 'sideshow,' as you call it --"

ROGERS: "So?"

BARNICLE: "--with his support of Hezbollah."

ROGERS: "So?"

Does anybody get the irony here?  If this were any Democrat saying it was okay for the Iraqi Prime Minister to defend a terrorist organization, Republicans like Ed Rollins would be labeling them as treasonous.

This completely contradicts Bush's rule of not working with any countries that support terrorism.