Colin Mockery

      I doubt it's much surprise to anyone that the Bush administration's reaction to the new book by Bob Woodward has been to attack and otherwise to sully Colin Powell: Powell has for some time been the voice of caution and sensibility in the Dubya cabinet, to be trotted out when grasping for international credibility but ignored the rest of the time. Powell's known as one of the more intelligent -- and publicly-respected-- figures in government, and so I suspect the administration's campaign against one of its own will backfire. Words to John Kerry and Colin Powell: Colin, quit, soon; John, ask Colin to run as Veep on your ticket. I'm not sure Powell would accept, but if he did, there might be a significant tectonic shift within the political centre as maybe, just maybe, people start to realize they need sensible government rather than the current idiotic Boris and Natasha leadership of Cheney (short for "chicanery") and Rumsfeld ("Donny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling..."). And no, I'm not implying that Dubya is Fearless Leader. I'm saying it outright.

      Sidebar: It never ceases to amaze me the dramatis personae of the cast of Bush critics: Paul O'Neill, General Anthony Zinni, John effing Dean (!), Richard Clarke, and (implicitly) Colin Powell (among many others), all-together as eclectic a group imaginable. How deaf, dumb and blind do you have to be to support the Dubster? Even Helen Keller would have recognized the hopelessness of this cadre by now.