Bush's awkwardness with English is contagious

From a Friday press conference held by Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor Fran Townsend:

Q.: I guess what I'm asking is, could you give us, say, the top ... three lessons that you think you've taken away from this exercise so far?

MS. TOWNSEND: Let me caveat it this way. I'm reluctant to say it's the top three, because when I come back in here in a month to give you an update because you want more information, you're going to say, those aren't the three you gave me last month.

Elsewhere on the Republican front, a "GOP strategist" quoted by MSNBC says, in a metaphor-rich comment:

"We are fighting too many fires, and taking too much friendly fire right now," the nauseated GOP strategist tells First Read. "There is really nothing [the White House] can do other than wait for it to pass, maybe catch a lucky break and rebuild." Some smart Democrats are starting to figure out "they have to do more than attack and sit there. If they start figuring that out as a party, we're toast."

• firefighting
• war
• sports
• cooking

And that's not counting the hurricane-reminiscent "wait for it to pass, maybe catch a lucky break and rebuild."