Happy Hour with Arianna

Dubya went back to the political equivalent of hugging his teddy bear yesterday - attending a Million Dollar black-tie fundraiser for the "Republican Eagles" in Los Angeles. The pool report made it sound like the ultimate roomful of well-heeled people in full scale denial. The standard pablum from Ken Mehlman gave the crowd time to pick through their $15K/plate meals. And then Dubya doing his groan-inducing comic folksiness and fear-the-future shtick. My favorite line was "I didn't come here not to deal with major problems." Because I won't tell you that he's not doing a for shite job of it.

No one wanted the 2000 dead soldiers in Iraq milestone to be passed, even though everyone knew it was coming over the past number of months. The tragic irony is that we saw that stat dominate the headline on the day that the Iraqis announced the final results of their Constitutional referendum. Of the tributes I've seen thus far, the NYTimes had a snippet of tragic info that surprised me yet again. In the past year (or since September, 2004) 994 Americans have died. Do you think anyone will still be supporting this "war" next year at this time if we're closing in on 3000 dead? Seriously - no joke there. Someone ask Dubya that, please.

With everyone that cares about politics waiting with bated breath to see what the Fightin' Fitz presents for indictments, I can say that there's one person out there I'd like to be sharing a bowl of pretzels with - Arianna Huffington. Her blow by blows on this whole cabal have been the most thorough. And by far the most entertaining. I can picture her this week in a swirl of cellphone calls, fawning assistants, lattes, wheat grass, martinis, fabulousness and grandiose pronouncements. She hits the mark maybe 35% of the time, which would make her a damn fine everyday player in Major League Baseball. As a pundit, she's more fun to listen to than rely upon. Much, much more fun. I suggest keeping an eye on "The Huffington Post" when the indictments come in.

Richard Clarke is making the rounds doing press for his first novel ("The Scorpions Gate"). Expect Fox News to introduce a book segment on all their shows, just to slam it. Regardless, the things he's able to offer as a critique of FEMA's handling of Hurricane Katrina make for fascinating listening. My, my he's done well rescuing his career from the ashes of this Administration's impending conflagration. I still say that his memoir "Against All Enemies" was the best potboiler of last year. Clarke said on "Fresh Air" that he has always enjoyed writing fiction because he enjoys reading fiction. Maybe he's a joke as a thriller writer. Still, I'd put his intellect above than all the Bushies that I've seen. So good for him. Smart sumbitch deserves to show off.

Tried to put together a crib for Maya last night that we'd gotten from a colleague of my wife. The parts were all there as far as we could tell, but we still couldn't figure it out. So I tried to Google plans or pics or something to help. As I expected, a few pics appeared because I searched for the exact company (Simmons from Wisconsin, under the "Little Folks" line). But more importantly repeated news of a massive recall of their cribs floated to the top of the Google results. So...we're shopping for a new crib. Apparently this one had a problem of the mattress base dropping to the floor because the supports gave way. So I've learned the lesson of researching the companies more completely. I'll be sure to pass along any that I find somehow lacking. Rock on.