[PAA-Discuss] Impersonating a president

[Ccdember at aol.com]

 Garrison Keillor




Published June 7, 2006




Nowadays, the Current Occupant goes on impersonating a president. Somewhere 
in the quiet, leafy recesses of the Bush family, somebody is thinking, "Wrong 
son. Should've tried the smart one." Five years in office and he doesn't have a 
grip on it yet. You stand him up next to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at 
a news conference and the comparison is not kind to Our Guy. Historians are 
starting to place him at or near the bottom of the list. And one of the basic 
assumptions of American culture is falling apart: the competence of 
Republicans.


You might not have always liked Republicans, but you could count on them to 
manage the bank. They might be lousy tippers, act snooty, talk through their 
noses, wear spats and splash mud on you as they race their Pierce-Arrows through 
the village, but you knew they could do the math. To see them produce a ninny 
and then follow him loyally into the swamp for five years is disconcerting, 
like seeing the Rolling Stones take up lite jazz. So here we are at an uneasy 
point in our history, mired in a costly war, a supine Congress granting 
absolute power to a president who seems to get smaller and dimmer, and the best the 
Republicans can offer is San Franciscophobia? This is beyond pitiful. This is 
violently stupid.

It is painful to look at your father and realize the old man should not be 
allowed to manage his own money anymore. This is the discovery the country has 
made about the party in power. They are inept. The checkbook needs to be taken 
away. They will rant, they will screech, they will wave their canes at you and 
call you all sorts of names, but you have to do what you have to do.

----------

Garrison Keillor is an author and the radio host of "A Prairie Home 
Companion."


Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

 __________________________________________________
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://paa-tx.org/pipermail/discuss_paa-tx.org/attachments/20060610/c31ba5e1/attachment.htm>