Soup of the Day

Maureen Dowd's op-ed column in today's NYT is a MUST READ! As always on this blog, you click on the above title which takes you to the Dowd article.

Maureen has a way with words! And she doesn't mince them often. She begins her friendly little piece with "No one will ever again dismiss the vice presidency as a pitcher of warm spit." This is in reference to a statement made in 1936 by two-term vice president John Nance Garner who served under FDR. (although one source said the statement was edited-Garner actually didn't use the word spit. Beside the point! Oh, and by the way, the word he did use rhymed with kiss.) Dowd says that our "Mr. Major League Potty Mouth" has shown that, "with obsequiousness to the president and obtuseness to the facts, a VP can run the world. Right into the ground." Well, that is a wee bit strong, but TRUE! Continuing on in her jocular style, Dowd writes,"This week it's not just Democrats who are questioning whether Vice is losing it. Now, even some in the White House are saying it's bizarre that he chose a class photo-op on the Senate floor to suggest that Senator Patrick Leahy do something that you won't even find described in Bill Clinton's 'My Life.'" Well, I think I'm going to have the vapors!

Not the least bit contrite when asked about his comments to Mr. Leahy, Cheney told Neil Cavuto in a Fox interview that he felt better afterwards. In fact he went on to say that it was something that needed to be said. Hmmm... I just don't want to believe this! Even Paul Wolfowitz offered an official apology this weekend after saying that the reporting from Baghdad was wanting because the reporters are too scared to leave their hotel rooms and are resorting to making up stuff. But our Vice is proud of himself for standing up to that senator from Vermont. Mr. Leahy apparently has had it coming to him for quite some time now.

Read Ms. Dowd's article. Every word is juicy! But just to close with one more zinger. Cheney assured Fox listeners that he would stay on the ticket. In his words, Mr. Bush "knows I'm there to serve him." To which Ms. Dowd added, Bush must have missed that classic "Twilight Zone" episode where the aliens (the Kanamits) arrive with a book entitled, "To Serve Man." It turns out to be a cookbook!

Rod Serling ends the tale as follows: "The recollections of one Michael Chambers, with appropriate flashbacks and soliloquy. Or more simply stated, the evolution of man, the cycle of going from dust to dessert, the metamorphosis from being the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in someone's soup. It's tonight's bill of fare on The Twilight Zone."

So next time your server asks, "What can I get for you this evening?", perhaps you can say, "I'll start with alphabet soup, but hold everything except the W's!

Bon appetit!