Gingrich's Catch-22: The more successful anti-terrorism is, the more secure we feel, so...

This is, by the way, the great -- one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration. The more successful they've been at intercepting and stopping bad guys, the less proof there is that we're in danger, and therefore, the better they've done at making sure there isn't an attack, the easier it is to say "well, there was never gonna be an attack anyway." And it's almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us.

-- Newt Gingrich in 2008, quoted by Mediaite

"One of the great tragedies of the Bush administration" -- that they actually succeeded too much in making people feel safe. That was a missed opportunity, all right! Should have been more fear, more terror alerts, more false alarms, more "condition red" -- because there wasn't enough of that.

A dick to the end, Bush snubs Helen Thomas

Buried in this masturbatory CNN piece about Bush's final press conference, in which the network's White House reporter spends several minutes discussing whether or not the president purposely mispronounces her name, is the note that in his candid farewell to the press, Bush snubbed 88-year-old Helen Thomas, who has covered nine presidents and is regarded as the dean of the White House press corps.

technorati: Bush, journalists, Helen Thomas

Because, in Iraq, there are no cream pies

During a press conference in Iraq, as President Push was speaking alongside the Iraqi prime minister, a man hurled two shoes at Bush, one after the other. In this screen capture, Bush ducks the first shoe:

Click the picture to go to BBC tape of the event. Extra points to the man for getting off both throws before he was jumped upon and beaten to a pulp.

Meanwhile, someone burned down Sarah Palin's Wasilla, AK church. Sheesh!

How baby boomers took over

The current issue (19 Nov 07) of Newsweek has this remarkable passage:

[As the Spring of 1968 began, President Lyndon] Johnson was bitter. "How is it possible," he repeatedly asked, "that all these people could be so ungrateful to me after I had given them so much? Take the Negroes. I fought for them from the first day I came into office. I spilled my guts in getting them the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress ... I asked so little in return. Just a little thanks. Just a little appreciation. That's all. But look what I got instead. Riots in 175 cities. Looting. Burning. Shooting ..." On and on, Johnson would rant, against the students and poor people who had turned against him, despite all he had done for them, "young people by the thousands leaving their universities, marching in the streets, chanting that horrible song about how many kids had I killed that day ..." ("Hey! Hey! LBJ! ...")

Johnson's worst dream, the most violent and diabolical, began with a twisted take on a cattle stampede. "I felt," Johnson later confided to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, "that I was being chased on all sides by a giant stampede coming at me from all directions." There were "the rioting blacks, demonstrating students, marching welfare mothers, squawking professors, and hysterical reporters. And then the final straw. The thing that I had feared from the first day of my Presidency was actually coming true. Robert Kennedy had openly announced his intention to reclaim the throne in the memory of his brother. And the American people, swayed by the magic of his name, were dancing in the streets."

How satisfying -- even 30 years later -- to hear a politician actually acknowledging the effect of protests. No wonder baby boomers are so full of themselves now -- they brought down not just Nixon, but Johnson as well.

As for now, can you imagine George Bush even being aware of -- much less being upset by -- the national mood of disgust with him?

technorati: LBJ, 1968

You bring the brains, I'll bring the guts

President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkoszy had lunch yesterday at the Bush compound in Maine. Sarkoszy brought the brains. You don't believe it? Read for yourself:

Q Mr. President, could you say something in French?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I can't. I can barely speak English. (Laughter.)

Q Mr. President, what kind of lunch are you going to have?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We're going to give him a hamburger or hot dog, his choice. (Laughter.)

MRS. BUSH: A traditional family lunch --

Q Mustard or catsup?

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's up to him. We got it all laid out in there. He's got some baked beans, if he'd like some baked beans we've got that, as well.

MRS. BUSH: Native Maine corn.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Corn on the cob, real fresh this time of year.

MRS. BUSH: -- salad, fresh tomatoes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: If he feels like it, he can have him a piece of blueberry pie -- fresh blueberries up here in Maine.

Q Do you think he's bringing cheese?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I think he's bringing goodwill. He's bringing a good brain, good vision and goodwill.

I like that Barbara Bush is taking credit for the corn. She probably thinks her Mayflower ancestors gave it to the Indians.