Laughing at the President

Bush, in his Saturday radio address: "This moment of conflict in the Middle East is painful and tragic. Yet it is also a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region. Transforming countries that have suffered decades of tyranny and violence is difficult, and it will take time to achieve. But the consequences will be profound for our country and the world."

Richard N. Haass, Bush's first-term State Department policy planning director who currently leads the Council on Foreign Relations, "laughed at the president's public optimism."

"An opportunity?" Haass said with an incredulous tone. "Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"

Ouch.

But rest assured, Bush is on the case. He's not about to sit on his laurels and not take advantage of this superb opportunity.

"I'm monitoring the situation in the Middle East very closely," Bush said this morning, in a speech at the Port of Miami.

…"We want there to be a long-lasting peace, one that's sustainable."

He's a real stunner, that Bush. It really casts into stark relief how much better he is than all our other presidents when he comes out with radically brilliant new approaches to a millennia-old conflict like "monitoring very closely" and "wanting peace."

And thusly I, too, laughed so as not to weep.

(The Swamp)