A little more national...

I ran across this editorial in the Washington Post, and thought it would be good to present to the class.

How's This for Satire?

By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, March 14, 2006; Page A19

The movie version of Christopher Buckley's book "Thank You for Smoking" opens Friday and in conjunction with that, Buckley was interviewed on National Public Radio. Buckley mentioned the difficulty of writing satire in Washington, where the most outrageous idea is trumped by the next day's headline. I heard the interview just as I was reading in the newspaper that Republicans were "distressed by the White House's performance since President Bush's reelection." As the old saying goes, can you top that, Chris?

Republicans were not "distressed," mind you, by the war in Iraq, which turns out to have been waged for no good reason. Republicans were not distressed by the massive intelligence failure that preceded the war. Republicans were not distressed, either, by the intelligence failure that produced the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, more than seven months after our MBA president took over as CEO of the federal government.

Republicans were not distressed by a war plan that envisioned an enthusiastic welcome for U.S. troops by the people of Iraq. They were not distressed by a faulty battle plan that relied on too few troops and enabled the sacking and vandalizing of Baghdad by the local barbarians. They were not distressed by a war that has gone on two years past the point where George W. Bush pronounced it substantially over. Republicans are a cheerful bunch.

[read the entire editorial]