Why is it considered journalistically appropriate to toss such softballs as “Is Iraq your Vietnam?” to the President’s during his annual press conference, but inappropriate to say,”Um, Mr. President we have documented at least 234 outright lies coming from you and your administration and we just wanted to call you on them”? Pundits parse through his lazy statements, searching for little nuggets of meaning. I mean, is it the responsibility of the press to honor the office so much that they have to pretend that the president is actually saying something when he talks, and ignore his mangling of facts and convenient fabrication of lies?

What if a monkey, instead of Bush, had been appointed to the Presidency? Each morning we would read about the implied political meaning of the President’s latest bout of feces flinging. There would be endless conjecture about the unusually brief flea-picking the president did during his Cabinet meeting–was he signaling a change in Middle East policy, or is the new flea dip working?

My head is in my hands. I feel I am in some bad ’80s political satire. But, no. This is for real.