The Swaggering of the President

The Littlest Angel's press conference yesterday -- only his 16th in four long years, the fewest press conferences by any elected president since records have been kept -- signaled a more open arrogance by the Wearer of the Halo.

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style," he said. "I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda: Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror."

Translation: We're gonna begin the phase-out of Social Security and consolidate the power of the wealthy. And do some other stuff that may get a trifle messy.

No definitive word yet on herding all the gays into re-education camps, but there'll be time for those details later. (And incidentally, Mr. President, you're going to need most of Montana for those camps: just in Watauga County alone, some 11,000 big homos voted for Kerry!)

Roger Simon has the clearest reality check: "Does Bush really want change that favors conservatives or does he want to 'reach out' and 'heal' the nation? Well, I wouldn't take this healing talk too seriously. Bush was elected by conservatives who expect to be rewarded with conservative legislation, conservative judicial appointments and conservative Constitutional amendments."

Can we hope for the 45 Dems left in the Senate to hang tough on, say, Supreme Court nominees and filibuster them into the good earth? Maybe. The weak reeds of that bunch, like Breaux, are gone now, and maybe the 45 who are left will have some guts. Only takes 41 to sustain a filibuster.