Would-be democratic Presidential candidates and Karl Rove are nervously eyeing Wesley Clark, who has voiced serious disagreements with the way the current Administration is handling domestic and foreign policy.

Within hours of the collapse of the Twin Towers, Clark received a phone call urging him to link Hussein with the horror when he spoke on CNN. He said he would be happy to do so if he heard the evidence. None was forthcoming. He didn’t say who made the phone call.

The former Supreme Commander of NATO wants to be Commander-in-Chief. So does the former First Lady: but not just yet.

The actual Commander-in-Chief is oblivious to all the machinations. Gallivanting in Kennebunkport with Dad and crew, Bush didn’t catch a salmon.

Another weekend on the road, the most rested President in recent memory loves to dis Washington and any excuse is a good one.

Catholic Bishops, Prime Ministers and Presidents wriggled through the week. Re-jigging the facts to fit a predetermined conclusion is par for the course when you know the truth, the light and the way. At least the American Petroleum Institute is happy.

Bush and Blair, the unlikely pas de deux, are puzzled with the troop levels required for occupation. In the fantasy world of in-out pre-emptive war, the Administration took great pleasure in giving-the-finger to the world. The Lone Ranger needs no one. Dissent is anathema. But the hallucination is wearing off.

To enforce Pax Americana Bush is having to reach out. The White House is scouring the world for soldiers to act as peacekeepers because peacekeeping is un-American and Venusian. (The Pentagon recently ordered the closure of the Peacekeeping Institute at the Army War College, effective September 30, 2003.)

Impoverished squaddies from Honduras and El Salvador may soon be patrolling the volatile streets of Iraq thereby releasing American GI’s for possible GW3.

Apart from the cruel irony, the ignobility will endure.

The Iranians are hearing the familiar war rhetoric emanating from the hawks and are scrambling to reassure all and sundry that their nuclear program is benign. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. UN inspectors should be allowed unfettered access to all nuclear sites and given time to report. Protesting students should be encouraged in their drive for a democratic society.  

Newt Gingrich wants to spread American values abroad. A laudable endeavor. However, if he doesn’t succeed,  the State Department (“a broken institution”) is to blame. In his second swipe at the Powell approach in as many months, Gingrich tells us the world doesn’t have to love us. Newt has enough love. Unrequited love will do. They just have to be able to predict us. And the State Department must ensure that they can do just that.

If the military victory in Iraq fails, Powell is culpable because he misrepresents Bush’s virile foreign policy. Newt should know. Flying kites is good sport. Even in the UK.

Unexpectedly, Blair announced his intention to abolish the office of Lord Chancellor and the tabloids were energized by tights, wigs, waffle and woolsack.

No one can predict who or what Newt will dis next or when. Certitude is a conceit. Much like chauvinism.     

11:57:39 AM