Recent Rehab Candidates

Top four would be Don Imus, Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz and Alec Baldwin.

The I-Man incident is one of those rare issues in which I agree with almost everyone who had an opinion. Perhaps one of the most insightful comments was made by Snoop Dog...i.e. there is a big difference between an old white guy using rapper terminology to comment on a mostly black girl's basketball team from Rutgers and black rappers creating "the poetry of the street." Imus didn't get the difference. While I tend to think that "rap trash" is more about exploiting crazy white kids with too much money rather than poetry...it's perhaps a suitable alternative means of making money in the ghetto to pushing drugs. Anyway, I followed the story for about a week and thought the people who came out of it the best were the coach and basketball team. They certainly didn't ignore it (and pointed out that the rest of the world wouldn't let them even if they'd tried), but in a dignified way, rose above it. Curiously, the person perhaps hurt the worse by the incident was New Jersey Governor Corzine...almost killed in a traffic accident, while rushing to "mediate" the Imus-Basketball Team make-up meeting.

I watched the I-Man MSNBC program frequently. He did have interesting interviews...if one could ignore his penchant for insulting everyone, particularly those he was interviewing. And, thanks to the remote control, when he wasn't interviewing someone interesting, I could change channels. Overtime, I found myself changing channels more often. More and more of the show became devoted to the I-Man himself...what he did last week, what he was going to do this week and next, etc. He talked alot about his ranch, his family, his friends, his cronies, his health and less and less about "news." Not being particularly into the lives of the rich and famous, it became boring. But then, I've never watched "American Idol" or "Dancing With the Stars" either.

Poor Alberto Gonzales just can't win for losing. In the Senate Judiciary hearing, he even managed to anger his closest Committee allies. The guy just doesn't get it, which is probably why Bush picked him as his attorney in the first place. In commenting on the differences between Gonzales' testimony in an earlier press conference with his current Congressional testimony, Senator Specter asked him a leading question regarding his preparation: "Would you prepare for a news conference the same way you would prepare for Senate hearing testimony, under oath?" In other words, the question gave him the opportunity to deny what he'd said in the news conference and set the record straight. Gonzales replied as if Specter was attacking him, rather than trying to help: "I am always prepared for everything I do, Senator." Which, of course, just pissed Specter off. And, since Gonzales had just finished admitting to a "flawed process," the "always prepared for everything" was only yet another Gonzales contradiction.

Ah well...while I think Alberto would personally be better off to resign, I see no reason to demand such due to incompetence...if that were the case, we'd have to move up the 2008 elections by a year. So, while I disagree with most of what Gonzales has done (or has not done) both as the President's White House attorney and as Attorney General, I think it's the President's call.

Paul Wolfowitz is another Bush appointee (among the many) who can't seem to get it right. Wolfowitz, a chief neo-conservative designer of the War in Iraq, before and as Rumsfeld's Deputy Secretary of Defense, is now President of the World Bank. And, he has about as many friends there as he has in Baghdad. Also, seems he arranged for the promotion of his girl friend from $132,000/year at the Bank to $193,000 job. He's Jewish; she's Muslim...which may provide a hint that the only thing keeping Jews and Muslims apart in the Middle East is money...not religion. Wolfowitz is a non-intellectual, intellectual who has, IMO, gained far more than he has contributed to life within the Beltway. Time for rehab and a nice professorship somewhere...say Pepperdine University.

And, finally Alec Baldwin...who apparently blew up at his daughter on the telephone and called her all sorts of unflattering things. Right, Balwin was definitely wrong...but who really cares?

Slowly returning to blogging following busy period of "out-processing" (retirement).