Tide turns on Dubya's wreck

That oddly simian face is ashen, the eyes leaden. The voice is shrill and its tone defensive.

"I'm the decider and I decide what's best," he squawked to reporters in the White House rose garden the other day, as the screws turned tighter on his disastrous Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Can you imagine Roosevelt, Eisenhower or Kennedy blurting something like that?

Beautiful incisive writing-- every last syllable of it!

Howard of the Overflow .....

I had written him a letter, which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him at the wheat board, years ago.
He was chairman when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him
Just on spec, to make the point that "Howard doesn't want to know".

And an e-mail came directed, not entirely unexpected
(And I think the same was written in some Middle Eastern bar).
'Twas his CEO who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Trevor Flugge's gone to Baghdad, and we don't know where he are.

"But when he left Australia, he was going to meet with Alia,
"A trucking mob in Jordan, who were keen to grease the wheels.
"For 10 percent commission, they could swing Saddam's permission
"To get our wheat accepted; it's the mother of all deals.

"But I guarantee, Prime Minister, that there's nothing at all sinister.
"The chaps at DFAT told us that the sums looked quite okay.
"When you're selling wheat in billions, what's a quick 300 million?
"If it keeps the Nationals happy, it's a tiny price to pay."

Sitting here at Kirribilli, I've been thinking, willy-nilly,
That it's somehow reminiscent of the children overboard:
But I can handle Rudd and Beazley, as I always do, quite easily
By endlessly protesting that there's nothing untoward.

I'll tell Bush next time I meet him at The White House, when I greet him,
That I'm sure he'll understand about the wheat board's quid pro quo.
He'll forgive this minor error in the global war on terror
When I look him in the eye and tell him Howard didn't know.

Mike Carlton