Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Sail On Fred Kaplan, who writes the War Stories column for Slate, was a guest today on NPR's program "Day to Day".  He opined that Bush won't fire Rumsfeld because it would run contrary to his "I say what I mean and I mean what I say" image. During press conferences, Bush, with his "uh"s and "duh"s, always reminds me of Bullwinkle.  But in soundbites and photo-ops, where he's more adept at displaying the straight-shooter, what-you-see-is-what-you-get persona crafted for him by Karl Rove to maintain his appeal to his conservative base, he's reminiscent of a different cartoon character: "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam, I'm Popeye the sailor man." 5:37:18 PM

Heads of State I have no more insight than anybody else about the unfortunate beheading of Nicholas Berg, but could it be some sort of perverse karmic payback for the Pentagon's assertion, in the early days of the Shock and Awe campaign, that their surprise Cruise missile strikes would "decapitate the leadership" of Saddam's regime and provoke immediate surrender? 5:33:57 PM