I sure hope Maureen Dowd never has any reason to evaluate my job performance. From her Thursday column in the NYT:
“Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back. They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.”
“One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program– but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It reminds me of where I wanna be sometimes.”
— George W. Bush (2006)
“OBL today is probably a very satisfied, very optimistic man, and if he can skew the last-minute dynamic of the election in Bush’s favor, he’ll have cause to be all the more satisfied.
And that’s the danger, that some crucial percentage of our dimmer, more reactive voters will flash back to 9-11 and the Bush of the bullhorn, the Bush buffeted with the heartbroken grit of Ground Zero, and vote for that — childishly imagining that such a vote runs counter to the wishes and the needs of OBL, the bearded stickman, the cave-dwelling spider, our new Old Man of the Mountains. Player of the long game.”
What do George Bush and Dick Cheney dream about when they’re deep in REM sleep? James Wolcott wonders:
“Suppose there had been no Iraqi insurgency, no al-Sadr popping out from behind the curtain or Saddam loyalists prepped for guerrilla war, no car bombings or beheadings or roadside explosives. Or an insurgency so feeble and scattered it was swiftly squashed and swept up. Just imagine how different things would have been over the last year, how different they would be now.”
I thought I mentioned it here but couldn’t find it. A long time ago, when John Ashcroft was governor of Missouri, he played in a benefit basketball game. I think is was The Governor’s Office vs. The Media.
I somehow wound up on the media team. I don’t fault Mr. Ashcroft for ringer-ing himself with a bunch of gigantic state troopers but this photo of W reminded me what a mean and dirty brand of ball the governor played. Anyone that’s played much pick-up ball knows this type of player. First to swing an elbow…first to scream foul…and incredulous if anyone dared call him on a foul.
The photo of Bush makes me wonder how often he got his ass kicked as a kid.