Bleat The Press

HOW'S MY HAIR? Bush

• He's with stupids: The Times's Maureen Dowd (free this week!) watched the Bush press conference and almost, but not quite, lapses into a classic Bush is Stupid joke: "He was asked if his surprise at the election results showed he was out of touch with Americans. 'I thought when it was all said and done,' he replied, 'the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security.' ... So it was just that the American people were too dumb to understand?"

• He even had a bad hair day: Also in the Times, Mark Leibovich writes, "He looked worn at his must-see midday news conference, in need of a haircut, good-night's sleep, better makeup job, hug, vacation in Crawford or some combination thereof. The grooves across his forehead were dark and articulated, his voice slightly hoarse. He wore a maroon tie, the color of blood." Also the prose was purple, the color of hyperbole.

• What we have here is a dead shark: The New Republic's Christopher Orr wonders, "After his midterm 'thumping,' Bush turns on a dime, firing Rummy and essentially handing his foreign policy over to the realists he'd frozen out all these years. Wouldn't it have made more sense—again, politically speaking—for him to make this evolution a little more gradual?" You talkin' evolution, Orry? He don't believe in that.

• And now for something completely incoherent...: Lyndon LaRouche, the ranting sidewalk leafleteers' presidential candidate of choice, has a thing or two to say about the press conference but for some reason releases these important statements as a series of Travers-esque blurbs: "Crazier than ever!" "Total denial of reality!" "Sheer madness!"