Yes, Friends, in spite of the many gloomy and pending problems facing this country, there is a new Sheriff in town in Mr. Obama, and there is reason to give all energy to hope and progress.
There may be only a little value in dwelling on the sins and sinners of the past 8 years, but still...there is something more than a little troubling about not pursuing some sense of accountability for those responsible for the multiple messes we and our representative government find ourselves in.
Something happened to me last night which almost made me confront one of the main sinners of the W administration...but for the fact that my seat was facing the wrong direction and my dinner companion didn't tell me that the loud abrasive woman 2 feet behind me was one Karen Hughes.
My question for everyone here - if given the opportunity, what would you have said to her?
And by asking that, what I have in mind is not a diatribe as that will likely get you thrown out of the restaurant if not arrested. Rather, what would you say that would be short and sweet, effective, penetrating, irrefutable, and just that right quiet touch of "oh...that's good..." you get after reading a clever New Yorker magazine cartoon.
It's not as easy as you might think, but I know the Kos crowd is up to the challenge.
Upon reflection, I was also reminded of Richard Clarke's emphatic statement, "These people should NOT be allowed back into polite society".
Friends, I really do not know what I would have done if I had actually snapped in a timely manner that I was sitting next to the devil herself, Karen Hughes. Part of me is glad that I didn't as it would have been all to easy for me to have made an ass of myself without really coming up with something good. As it was, the whole thing sort of ruined what had been a pleasant dinner.
To give you some of the quirky but unnecessary details, we went to Ranch 616 in Austin, TX last night to enjoy a nice meal after doing something fun and goofy for Texas - ice-skating at a ridiculously small rink.
We sat down at our two-top directly at adjacent to the Devil's banquet. There were 5-6 people at the Hughes' table with the evil loud one I later learned to be Karen seated at the head of the table. My chair bumped into the chair of her companion immediately to her left, so for me to have seen her I would have had to have turned 175 degrees over my right shoulder.
I did recognize the voice as familiar, and knew that it was not a positive association. Subconsciously, I had blocked her name, image and just overall bad ju-ju out of my mind.
I had a previous bad experience with Ms. Hughes in that shortly after she resigned to "spend more time with her family" her likeness appeared on the Chamber of Commerce craptacular Austin Magazine. I walked into a grocery store and they had no less than 100 copies displayed as a mural, so all you saw was wall-to-wall Hughes. I did not continue with my grocery shopping and just walked out. It was that upsetting.
One buddy of mine summed her up best when he said that if Karen Hughes were your neighbor and her dog were to crap on your lawn, she would not only deny that her dog did it, but walk up to the dog crap, point at it and emphatically insist that the dog, the lawn and therefore the dog crap all just did not exist and you owed her an apology for dragging her out there.
Some quirky things overheard last night:
Yes, she did bark at the waiter for bringing her the wrong order, and she added that there was shrimp in her food which she said she was allergic to. That was the only substance of anything she said that I caught as it was sort of abrupt and haughty and I had no reason to listen in otherwise...since I didn't figure out who it was pointed out to me when walking home.
So friends, assuming that I am not tracked down and arrested, what should I say next time I see the Devil herself.
The best I could come up with is: You are a testament to the strength and endurance of the Constitution...although the economy, military, and environment have not fared as well thanks to your merry band of idiots. And please try the bacon-wrapped shrimp appetizers - they are delicious.
Help me out, friends. I want to be ready.
Thanks for listening.
Tug