What next? Raving lunatic?
With Frank Rich of the New York Times arguing quite convincingly that George W. Bush is divorced from reality in ways that resemble the last days of Richard Nixon in 1974, and Paul Krugman of the Times calling him a bully that few have the nerve to stand up to, it's hard to imagine wnat other excoriation can be heaped upon the President.
My favorite story, though, and one which Krugman mentions in his column tomorrow (I can't link to either the Rich or Krugman columns, which are part of the Times Select premium service), is how Sen-elect James Webb of Virginia and Bush got into a testy exchange in a White House receiving line. Bush asked Webb how his son was doing in Iraq, and Webb, ala Eartha Kitt with Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, told the President he wanted his son and the other troops brought home. "That's not what I asked you," Bush snapped, at which point Webb apparently felt his fist clenching if one account is to be believed. "How's your boy?" Bush demanded. To which Webb answered, "That's between me and my boy."
We fight around the edges of the Iraq War, making nonsensical arguments about whether it is or isn't a civil war instead of organizing massive marches on Washington demanding an end to the insanity. And Paul Krugman is right when he says too many are willing to let themselves be bullied by Bush and his wingnut bitter enders rather than speak the truth. The war is lost. Let us leave now before we have our Stalingrad.