ONCE AGAIN PROVING they put their rhetoric before the good of their country, rightwing pundits set the bar so low today even a cockroach couldn't crawl under it.

This is Rush Limbaugh's official reaction to the news that our president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:

"Our president is a worldwide joke. Folks, do you realize something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about -- and that is he doesn't deserve the award? Now that's hilarious, that I'm on the same side of something with the Taliban."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had of course earlier in the day issued a statement from the usual "undisclosed location" condemning the award. At the same time, U.S.- and NATO-backed Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called the award "appropriate."

"His hard work and his new vision on global relations, his will and efforts for creating friendly and good relations at global level and global peace make him the appropriate recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize," Karzai's spokesman Siamak Hirai said.

So whose side does Limbaugh take? The guy in the cave. Even Rush addicts must be feeling a little icky now.

William Kristol, whose mouth must be permanently stuck in a pucker from sucking on sour grapes since the neoconservative movement bombed, was of course equally indignant.

BUT A LOT OF US voted for Barack Obama for exactly the same reason the Nobel Committee did:

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future."

The committee's decision was unanimous and reflects its predilection toward multilateralism, a word likely missing from our last president's vocabulary.

It's time to give peace (and our new president) a chance.