March Madness
"Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance." George W. Bush 2/8/08

The ombudsman for the Times weighed in, last Sunday, and there was at least the umami, if not the textural satisfaction of red meat, for those who had spent their week rekindling their hatred of the Times for its treatment of the presumptive Republican nominee.

He faulted the story for the use of anonymous sources who at best were recalling eight year old impressions. (I heard somebody quip that in Washington an 'anonymous source' means a disgruntled former employee.)

There was no photograph of any mistress in the lap, he reminded readers. "It did not make clear what McCain was admitting when he acknowledged behaving inappropriately — an affair or just an association with a lobbyist that could look bad."

No way to turn that into a Hobson's choice, I'm guessing.

McCain, later in the week, repudiated Bill Cunningham from Cincinnati for his warm-up address at a campaign rally and may well have lost any good will accrued by the Times story.

The local radio host had riffed on many of those ugly talking points which flood the back channels.

Questions, such as the one at Tuesday's Democratic debate, about Louis Farrakhan being for Obama, and subsequent semantic tangles over "reject" and "denounce" pale by comparison when you think of all the kooks who fire up the Republican base.

While John McCain did step up to the plate and denounce the Michael Savage wannabe in Ohio, he is still far from rejecting John Hagee, whose endorsement, evidently, he can put to good use. This man preaches the ugliest sectarian rubbish you can imagine but somehow has a friend in Senator McCain.

The straight talk express veered into Spinal Tap territory, with McCain's scold of Obama over alQaeda in Iraq.

One of the street gangs calls itself alQaeda in Iraq and that means they're the same thing as alQaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It's like the amp that's "got eleven."

At his press conference, the president continued the simple storytelling which got us this far. Because that AlQaeda actually is in Iraq is just slightly easier a case to make than that Bader Meinhoff is in Los Angeles. They want to have a base or a caliphate or something. Wouldn't want that, I suppose.

The sight of Bush banging his fists for emphasis got pretty scary at times. He came across as part spoiled brat, part Hollywood caricature of a tyrant. The straw man arguments over wiretapping remain astounding. His contempt for the law is no more convincingly sold by "protecting Americans" than it was by "9-11 changed everything."

It's one thing to have to accept that March Madness really happens mostly in April. But if Bush doesn't want to disclose surveillance methods even to a secret court, as codified in law, that's crossing over into unacceptable. I could live with "Spring Madness" but George Bush is an impeachment still waiting to happen.

Next week: Day One

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