"Forrest Gump from the Dark Side"

That's how Stephen Pizzo describes George Bush in "The Real George W. Bush". I think this is my favorite part:

Either way, Bush is finished as a force in American politics.

But this is good, too:

It's a moment new to America -- a leader who needs to be led, and now unled. And the world is watching. It's as if the police had come and dragged Edgar Bergin offstage in the middle of a show, leaving Charlie McCarthy, wide-eyed, mouth agape and slumped alone on his stool.

Enjoy. Newswise, you've got nothing better to do: we already knew Harriet Miers was a goner, and Fitzmas has been delayed at least another day.

But speaking of Fitzmas, Paul Begala has some sharp insights into the life of a White House staff under fire, at TPMCafe:

Mr. Bush would do well to augment his current staff, a C-Team if ever there was one, with some stronger characters. But to read the Bush-Miers correspondence is to gain a disturbing insight into Mr. Bush's personality: he likes having his ass kissed. Ms. Miers' cards and letters to the then-Governor of Texas belong in the Brown-Nosers Hall of Fame. You can be sure the younger and less experienced Bush White House aides are even more obsequious. The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups.

And so they wait. And they sniff the royal throne. They tell the Beloved Leader he's the victim of a partisan plot (although how the Bush CIA, which referred the Plame case for prosecution, became ground zero of Democratic liberalism escapes me). They assure him all is well. But all is not well. People are looking over their shoulders. The smart ones have stopped taking notes in meetings. The very smart ones have stopped using email for all but the most pedestrian communications. And the smartest ones have already obtained outside counsel.

Now, to veer completely off-topic -- Back in August that "Mars Spectacular" email from 2003 started circulating again. Fact is, the closest passage that will occur in our lifetime took place in 2003, but this weekend will be the next closest opposition until 2018.

Speaking of emails that never die, do all of your friends' friends a favor: when they send you the warning about how Swiffer Wet Jet cleaning fluid killed a neighbor's 5-year old German Shepherd, send them this link.