1,000 Words

Well, Bush, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and there you were, on the front page of both the New York and the Los Angeles Times this morning:



your good self, making your lashing-out speech (see yesterday's entry), in which you castigated those senators who had dared speak out against your (quite possibly illegal) directive ordering the wire-tapping of those you, in your wisdom, deemed a threat to our fellow citizens in the wake of 9/11. In the Roosevelt Room! That's Teddy Roosevelt, I suppose, since you're standing there in front of that famous portrait of the genial Ted astride his prancing steed, about to lead the charge up San Juan Hill, if I'm not much mistaken. A veritable hero! Pure genius, Bush, to borrow that aura and that energy when you need them! And those flagstaffs with their proud eagles on either side! How very nice of those two newspapers--and I suppose many more--to print this glorious Associated Press image front and center on their Sunday morning edition! Because of course this was a radio, not a television speech. Nicely done.

Modesty, I'm sure, will prevent you from choosing this same venue for tonight's promised speech on the success of your Iraq elections. Good luck with it, Bush. I'll be interested to hear what you have to say, and hope very much that it's not the same old drivel about freedom and democracy. Because your actions over here make a mockery of your promises to deliver these benefits to the people of distant countries like Iraq. I imagine they're smart enough to see the hypocrisy. Anyway, I expect that I'll be listening. Watching, I should say. And I'll be interested to see where they have you placed for this one.

The Roosevelt Room, Bush! With Teddy on horseback! What a kick!