MeanDean Debates Perle

Newly elected Democratic National Chair Howard Dean, our favorite all-round Proctologist to the Right, debated neo-con and Darth Vader look-alike Richard Perle yesterday in Portland, Oregon. A protester threw a shoe at Perle, yelling "Liar, liar!" but MeanDean was a model of restraint.

Our favorite wound inflicted on Perle came from an audience member who reminded Perle that he had bragged on Sept. 22, 2003, that within one year "a grand square in Baghdad [would be] named for President Bush."

Instead of sensibly going "la-la-la, I can't hear you," Perle laid down another public quote by which he can be humiliated in the future: "I'd be a fool not to recognize that it did not happen on the schedule I had in mind," Perle said, adding that he did not deny that the administration had made mistakes in Iraq. But, Perle added, "I will be surprised, yet again, if we do not see a square in Baghdad named after this president."

So the first person to notice "George W. Bush Square" in Baghdad (or even "George W. Bush Bomb Crater") is requested to phone in, so that Richard Perle will not continue to look like ... Richard Perle.