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Saturday, July 19, 2008
Nouri al-Maliki pulls a Shecky Greene
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I lost my virginity to Shecky Greene.
Speaking purely journalistically, of course.
Back in the early ’80s, I was working as the entertainment editor of The Las Vegas Review-Journal (my career has been all downhill ever since). Shecky was about to open his comedy act at one of the big Vegas hotels, so I did a cover story on him for our magazine.
In our interview, Shecky ripped the cheap hotels then being built along the Strip, complaining that they were ruining the town. But after that quote appeared in the paper, Shecky issued a statement denying he had ever said such a thing. His remarks had made some important people mad, and he had to throw me under the bus.
I was fresh out of college, and that was the first time in my career that someone had pulled that manuever on me. I knew Shecky had said it; he knew he had said it. And we both knew he was lying when he denied it.
I see that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has now executed a Shecky with a half twist. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Maliki basically endorsed the timeline — excuse me, the “time horizon” — proposed by Barack Obama for withdrawal of U.S. troops
“U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” Maliki said.
Asked if he supported Obama’s approach over that of John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, Maliki said he did not want to recommend who Americans should vote for.
“Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality,” he said. “Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems.”
Once that statement began to draw attention, the Iraqi government issued a half-hearted denial, claiming Maliki’s remarks had been mistranslated or misunderstood. The denial didn’t say what, if anything, Der Spiegel had gotten wrong, and the statement itself was released through the U.S. military press office, not by the Iraqi government.
Maliki said it. He wants us gone sooner than later, and he’s making that more and more clear all the time.
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Somebody has stolen our president!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who is this new guy in the White House, the one who looks and talks like George Bush but acts like someone who actually knows how to use the full range of tools available to him as president?
It can’t be George W. Bush. This new guy has agreed to lift trade sanctions against North Korea and to remove North Korea from the list of states sponsoring terrorism. This new “Bush” embraces timelines — excuse me, “time horizons” — for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and he has sent U.S. diplomats to talk directly with Iranian diplomats. He even appears close to opening a U.S. “interest section” in Iran for the first time since the late ’70s.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton says such moves are “further evidence of the administration’s complete intellectual collapse.” In an interview with Fox News’ Major Garrett, Bolton said “it’s the Bush administration legitimizing the Obama presidency’s policy. It’s like Senator Obama already has a transition office in the West Wing.”
So who is this impersonator? (Anybody seen Frank Caliendo lately?) Do they have the real President Bush squirreled away in some secret, undisclosed location, right next to a straitjacketed Dick Cheney? (And why do we say something is “squirreled away” in the first place?)
Most important, why on earth did they wait seven and a half years to make the switch?
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Free swim!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You guys can handle it from here.
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