I’m Still Not Quite Sure

…that I didn’t write this.

Damn, I wish the president would swear more. When his private conversation with Tony Blair was picked up yesterday on an open microphone, I was heartened, not shocked. “See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over,” Bush said. Lebanon is in flames. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is enriching. Isn’t this a time for swearing?
Shouldn’t we hope that when he’s in private, Bush is throwing around the barnyard epithets? I don’t think anyone would have been comforted if his aside to Tony Blair had been about weight lifting or the soufflé they had for lunch. Tony, did you see what Jacques was wearing?
Everyone has fixated on the word “shit,” with cable commentators and news anchors expressing “concern” about the language “controversy.” (For language purists, of course, the real problem is the apparent misuse of the word irony.) According to some, the single dirty word is more proof that Bush is a dumb cowboy, but Bush’s unguarded remarks actually make the opposite case. They show that he understands the awkward steps of diplomacy and that, while he may be frustrated, he’s remarkably cool and multilateral for the supposed simple fellow from Midland. (The reaction has actually been fairly mild. If this were a Democratic president, the forces of moral rectitude would be swarming: What about the children?)

Wish I had, ’cause it sounds like what I was thinking.

One Response to “I’m Still Not Quite Sure”

1. Mike Rentner says:

   July 19, 2006 at 10:24 am

   I’m only appalled that he was talking with his mouth full. How crass.