Tina Brown is normally too shallow and nasty to merit reading. But when she turns her acid—tipped pen in the direction of Democrats, her cattiness becomes bearable, even amusing. In today's Washington Post, she describes Democrat despair at America's — and W's — triumph in trapping the rathole—dweller, which has now reduced the field to "little more than the mannerisms that annoyed us in the first place."

She throws out a few good one—liners describing them: "Lieberman, he of the censorious smile and jungle—book voice. Kerry, the talking tree with the '70s hair. Edwards, hopelessly puppyish at 50. Clark, cyborg hero of places no one can spell. Dean, no longer the exciting insurgent riding to glory on the Internet but a pisher with no past and no neck, poised to lead his party to angry defeat. Only Gephardt retained a certain Great Plains steadfastness; but the nation wants swords, not plowshares — 'Top Gun,' not 'It's a Wonderful Life.'"

Of course, all of this is merely a prelude to nauseating praise of the Pantsuited One. Spare yourself the last paragraph, if you have eaten recently.

Posted by Thomas 12 18 03