Don't Kick Bush When He's Down

A bird had the right idea -- CRAP on him instead! This added a Daliesque touch to an already surreal Rose Garden press conference Thursday morning. Dana Millbank's column on it is hilarious, opening with:

Is there no safe haven for President Bush?



It happened midway through his news conference in the Rose Garden yesterday morning, in between his 10th and 11th mentions of al-Qaeda: A bird flew over the president and deposited a wet, white dropping on the upper left sleeve of his jacket. Bush wiped the mess off with his bare hand.



[...]



But as frequently happens at presidential events these days, it quickly became al-Qaeda, all the time. Bush invoked the terrorist group 19 times and even suggested it was going after individual reporters' kids.



"They are a threat to your children, David," he advised NBC's David Gregory.



"It's a danger to your children, Jim," Bush informed the New York Times' Jim Rutenberg.



This last warning was perplexing, because Rutenberg has no children, only a brown chow chow named Little Bear. It was unclear whether Bush was referring to a specific and credible threat to Little Bear or merely indicating there was increased "chatter in the system" about chow chows in general.