Keeper of the Clown Bell

Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal's answer to the New York Time's elderly schoolgirl columnist (props to Mark Steyn) Maureen Dowd, has officially flipped out. Perhaps it was the latest scandal in the Catholic Church that pushed her "into bad territory with the trolley", but she seems to think the world is out of control and the President - any President - can't handle it, manage it, control it anymore (as if they ever could). She also offers this beauty taken from Christopher Lawford's autobiography: "I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you guys are my age." I asked him ( Uncle Teddy ) why, and he said, "Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart." Well, please kick the bucket ASAP Ted - few have done more to send "the trolley off the tracks" than you have. In death you might even have to give up your seat in the US Senate - though I don't know why because your constituency would

Here's your chance to stop a travesty of justice - Whatever your politics, you should submit this Petition. http://frum.nationalreview.com/petition/

OK, so you're a progressive hand-wringing "liberal" and the political mood of the USA has not been going your way for the last 25 years - but really, aren't these alternate reality TV shows even more depressing than the GOP reality. You realize that the TV studios are making these programs for you, right? The model is Martin Sheen as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet - the self righteous moralizer who inhabits the "West Wing" of the people's White House. Jed is the antidote to the dark reality so brilliantly portrayed in the British film titled "Love Actually" where the PM (Hugh Grant...no, I'm not kidding) puts the US President (Billy Bob Thornton...and, no, I'm not kidding about that either) in his proper place with this brilliant bit of dialog: Press Conference Reporter: Mr. President, has it been a good visit? The President: Very satisfactory indeed. We got what we came for and our special relationship is still very special