Rice's Trip to Disneyworld

I'm in a bit of an ornery mood, so maybe I should make my usual disclaimers first. I think Bush has a good heart and good intentions. I think Condoleeza Rice is competent and sincere.

Now let the sarcasm begin...

Condoleeza Rice has a great smile, but every time I see her in a new photo op in a new country, the comic in me has been saying... "That reminds me of something--something funny. What is it?"

I put it together this morning. It's a Disneyworld photo. Every picture looks like she should be standing next to Goofy or Mickey or Minnie. Once I made the connection, it was all over.

Rice is going on a little tour, a little Spring Break trip to see famous characters she's heard of. Of course they're just doing their job, taking pictures with foreign tourists with cameras. It's no secret that Western Europe was hoping they would be dealing with John Kerry about now, but they'll play ball with Condi if they have to. Of course Eastern Europe has always been more supportive of us, partially because we're their patron, partially because they understand dictatorships, partially because they're used to getting things done the violent way.

Rice has also invited Abbas and Sharon to come to the U.S. Bush's trying to get some credit for the budding peace he's had nothing to do with. Or maybe he has secretly been working behind the scenes in some covert operation no one knows about. That would be smart, since any association with the U.S. would only derail Abbas' street cred. with the Palestinians. Naw, don't think so.

Bush is now trying to get in on the action after they've already signed a cease fire. Too late. The most important part of Middle East peace is now underway, no thanks to Bush.

Meanwhile Bush's secular Iraqi administration has apparently lost the election, apparently come in third. No doubt a sign of their approval of the way we run things. We'll now be dealing with a religious Shiite administration. That will be interesting. Of course that's why we actually invaded Iraq... to bring justice to the 9-11 terrorists, no, I mean to stop Hussein from using WMD on us, no, I mean to set up a sympathetic democracy in the Middle East to influence the area, no, to set up a semi-democractic Shiite regime to run Iraq the way it should be--the Muslim way. What a happy day for the women of Iraq.