Alterman - Slacker Friday

Name:  Charles Pierce
Hometown: Newton, MA
Eric:
Fire the bastards.  Every damn one of them.  And then lock them all up.  Build a new wing at Leavenworth, if you have to do it.  You can start with Rummy, who's not turning out to be quite the iconic figure in American history that his Beltway lackeys have been pitching us for the past three years.  (Apparently, what happened was abuse, but maybe not torture.  And maybe his shoes will turn to gold if he wishes hard enough.)  God, if they pitch him any further overboard, he's going to wash up in Guam.  Right now, at every news conference he looks like Tessio, standing in the driveway at the end of "The Godfather," asking Tom Hagen to bail him out.

"Nothing I can do, Rummy."

Thanks to Sy Hersh, and to whatever benevolent God put him on earth, the prison story has sent the pundit right on a descent into utter incoherence.  It doesn't fit any of the precious paradigms -- not even their phony concern for Our Troops, who are over there doing a Great Job keeping Sean Hannity's book sales in the stratosphere.  Hey, guys and gals, I can assure you that professional soldiers are more sickened by this story than any reporter is.  In fact, the ones I know sound very much like the good priests I knew who we're devastated as the abuse stories rolled out, day after day, over the last couple of years.  And that exactly what we don't need  -- now that Rummy and C-Plus Augustus, and Colin The Oval Office Chiffarobe have stuck us in this place for another 10 years -- is a cover-up so this story festers and demolishes morale even more than it has...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

description of him!

"Right now, at every news conference he looks like Tessio, standing in the driveway at the end of "The Godfather," asking Tom Hagen to bail him out.

"Nothing I can do, Rummy.""