CALL ME SNAKE

I saw the President last night on the TV news, talking about war, Iran, the economy, etc. He was as inarticulate as usual and came off, again per usual, as amazingly dimwitted. When asked whether he hadn't received enough credit for the economy, he said in his typical fumbling manner: "Well, you see, our nation is at war. And war is, uh, well, it's a negative..." And there you have it from the highest authority. Who needs Tolstoy to expound on war and peace when we have our own, in-House poet/philosopher?

The Scooter Libby trial is a sideshow, receiving scant attention compared to what it deserves. This is just another example of Bush, Cheney, and their cronies getting away with murder. For this trial is about much more than whether one of Cheney's underlings leaked the name of a CIA operative. It's about the lies the Bush administration resorted to to get this country into a disastrous, ruinous war--with Bush, Cheney, and Karl Rove's fingerprints all over this deception. As such, the crime under consideration goes way behind what Libby did or did not say to a handful of celebrity journalists.

Have I mentioned before that I love PARADE? I can't say enough good things about it. The latest issue of my favorite magazine--with the words "What you can learn from TV docs" emblazoned on the cover--would have the impressionable reader believe that we can all stop going to our physicians and instead watch medical shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, or MASH reruns. The next issue of the weekly journal, I expect, will tell us that watching TV is good for you, especially if you eat junk food at the same time.

No, the above words are not three of my New Year’s resolutions, which I’ve already gone on record as saying I do not abide by. They are the words of my youngish daughter, who volunteered that advice when I told her I’d be spending more than a year working on the book I just started.

There is perhaps no greater honor in the blogosphere than to be granted a Celebrity Guest Column spot in Call Me Snake. Today I am pleased to announce that that honor goes to none other than myself, aka Snake, aka the Cambridge Guy, aka a Cambridge Kind of Guy. In response to notes by Windfall Woman and Turd Blossom re. John Kerry's decision to pull out of contention for the 2008 race and questions about my own plans for elective office, I said the following (subject, of course, to editing): "You're right, WFW. The whole Democratic Party is heaving a collective sigh of relief. Thanks for the note, TB. I'm not going to rule out anything. Nor am I going to rule in anything. In other words, I'm not ready to rule at this juncture. I'm going to spend some time with my family, talking and thinking (who ever thought with his family? Me, that's who!), but not deciding. And definitely not ruling--in, out, or otherwise."

As for the comments of Marco Polo (aka "Time Warp"), I had this to say: "Actually, 'Time Warp,' you're half right: KERRY LOST TO W AFTER W LOST TO GORE."

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Casting all false modesty aside, this is an example--a template if you will--of what an exchange in the blogosphere could and might look like if we all applied ourselves. Thanks, as always for your support. I could not have done it without you. I'd also like to thank my mother and father, without whom I could not have done it either...)

After much deliberation and soul searching, carefully weighing the pros and cons, John Kerry made a wise and considered judgment in deciding not to run for president in 2008. And that is exactly the kind of judgment we’d like to see from our presidents, though on that front we’ve witnessed precious little of late.

James Webb was effective last night in his Democratic response to George Bush's State of the Union address. He said that he and other members of his family, as well as soldiers across the U.S. and over the generations, have enlisted in the military because they love their country. But they must trust that their leaders will exercise wisdom and not enter or start wars recklessly. On that score, which is a huge one, Bush has failed miserably. He and his cohorts lied repeatedly to get us into a needless war that has led to the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and 10 to 100 times more dead Iraqis. This is not just an example of flawed foreign policy; it's an act of criminal misguidance of the highest proportions.

A friend of mine who's a tough critic and a generally well-read fellow told me that yesterday's post was "brilliant," my "best ever." It took me a minute to remember that the post he was referring to was one (related to George Bush and Groundhog Day) that I didn't write at all, that I merely reprinted. One could, I suppose, take that as a backhanded compliment. But I prefer to think of it as a tribute to my editorial judgment. At least that's what I keep telling myself. (Did I mention I have a fragile ego? The words "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" are still reverberating inside my cranium, 15 years after Jack Nicholson first uttered them. But enough sputtering, enough Tuesday morning quarterbacking. I got a nice compliment, and let's leave it at that.)

I'm not normally in the habit of reprinting stuff that gets forwarded around, all over the internet. But as the title suggests, this bears repeating: This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication while the other involves a groundhog." (EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks go out to Ken, one of my famous Nashville cousins, for this one.)

We here in New England are so used to seeing Tom Brady and the Patriots pull off last second victories that there was a lingering sense of disbelief after yesterday's game, in which the Patriots lost to the Colts by four points. I, too, was taken aback by the defeat and felt personally at a loss for the rest of the night. But life goes on, they say. They also say, "Get over it," and I feel like I'm in the process of doing so. Regardless of the outcome, it was a close, hard-fought game and my team made a great effort, playing like true Patriots--not the kind of false Patriots defined by Bush and Cheney, which means just agreeing with whatever dangerous nonsense they choose to inflict on us and the world. But this is about sports, not politics, and I'd rather not sully the conversation by saying any more about those two scary men.