Force majeure

A conversation I have a lot lately with various friends runs like this: Is there a limit to how much Bush & Co can get away with before the rest of America is ready to cut him loose too?

I'm somewhat famous in my circle for guessing wrong about these things: When I saw Begin, Sadat, and Carter shaking hands at Camp David, I said, "Well, there's Carter's second term in a breeze." And when I read David Grieder's Rolling Stone interview with Reagan budget director David Stockman, in which Stockman called his own budget "a Trojan horse," I said, "Well, that's it for Reagan's chance at a second term."

So my point is that I don't have a perfect track record on this kind of thing. But you can see where I'm heading: One brazen act after another--exploding deficits, lying to get the US into a war, exploiting 9/11 to push through all manner of unrelated legislation, the spiraling debacle of the Iraq war, and so on and so on--at what point will the American finally people rise up and say, "No, sir--this time, at long last, you have gone too far!"

Well, perhaps--just perhaps!--it's finally about to happen. Some people can problem-solve their way around $3/gallon gasoline, but how many of them can stay in a chipper, fair-minded mood without coffee?

I mean, don't get me wrong--I'm a de-caf man, myself. But I've been around you people when you're doing without.

I'm just saying. That's all.