Under the Plane Tree

The Athenians valued Themistocles, but they never really loved him. He was pushed from power mere months after his epic victory. [Cleanup after the Leonidas Spartan 300 mess.] As Plutarch later reported, the Athenians “treated him like a plane-tree; when it was stormy, they ran under his branches for shelter, but as soon as it was fine, they plucked his leaves and lopped his branches.” (David Brooks in The NYT).

And ...

President Bush wants to keep everything that happens in his White House secret, but when it comes to his own emotions, he’s as transparent as a teenager on MySpace. (Frank Rich in The NYT).

Some Pork With Your Peanut Butter?

After ticking off all the things New York City has done to guard against another terror attack, Bloomberg called for a risk-based dispersal of homeland security funds, accusing Congress and the White House of spreading homeland security dollars "around the country like peanut butter." (Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York at Senate hearing).

McCain, a Political Cat That's Off Balance

Mr. McCain is stuck on the bridge of a sinking policy with W. and Dick Cheney, who showed again this week that there is no bottom to his lunacy. The senator supported a war that didn’t need to be fought and is a cheerleader for a surge that won’t work. It has left Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, once the most spontaneous of campaigners, off balance. He’s like a cat without its whiskers. (Maureen Dowd in The NYT).

Mr. President, Welcome to Third Grade

Watching the administration try to get its story straight about Iran’s role in Iraq last week was like watching third graders try to sidestep blame for misbehaving while the substitute teacher was on a bathroom break. (Frank Rich in The NYT. Times Select access required).

Just What We Need: A Prussian Admirer

His [Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's] favorite quotation from history, he told reporters traveling with him this week for meetings with allies and commanders in Europe and the Middle East, is from Frederick the Great, the 18th century Prussian monarch and gifted musician: “Negotiations without arms are like music books without instruments.” Or, put another way, it takes military power to create the leverage necessary to make negotiations fruitful. (Military Memo, New York Times).

The View From the Roof: Praying for Deliverance

[On the Iraq Study Group report and the Bush perspective]

There were enough good ideas, anodyne suggestions and blurry recommendations (blurriness is not always bad in foreign affairs -- confusion can buy time!) that I thought the administration would see it as a life raft. Instead they pushed it away. Like the old woman in the flood who took to the roof and implored God to send a boat to save her. A hunk of wood floated by as she prayed with fervor. A busted wooden door floated by as the waters rose and she doubled her prayers. Finally she cried "God, I asked you to save me and you didn't send a boat!" And the voice of God answered: "I sent you a hunk of wood and a door!" We don't always recognize deliverance when it arrives. ( Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal).

And on This Slide ...

Watching George Bush’s televised speech last week, when he revealed what he called “the main elements” of his plan to rescue Iraq, was like watching a slightly nervous lieutenant colonel read PowerPoint slides. (The New Yorker).

Surging to the Left, Surging to the Right

It [Bush’s firing commanders who disagreed with the Surge] is like firing your psychiatrist, hiring one who agrees with your plan of recovery and then telling your wife your counselor thinks you're on track. (The Willzhead blog).


It [Democrat’s criticisms] is like driving with someone who criticizes you if you take a wrong turn, but has no idea what to do and prefers to make the situation worse so that they can continue to criticize. (The WatchBlog).


A troop surge is like finding a stockbroker who has lost millions upon millions in the past few years because of bad investments and saying, “Here, take my life savings and invest it for me.” Only an idiot would think this is a good idea. (Great Minds Think Differently blog).


Experts who know the truth understand that sending less than 60.000 more troops . . . is like putting a Band-Aid over the incision your cardiologist makes when going in for open heart work. (honey & quinine blog).


Bush is like the gambler who goes into the casino & after losing his first hand, he doubles down, loses again & doubles down again, hoping against hope that at some point he will win a hand & be ahead. Unfortunately, Bush has now lost 439 hands in a row & all his doubling down has only resulted in $350 billion down the drain, 3,000+ dead American soldiers, 45,000+ wounded American soldiers and untold hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis. (Undeniable Liberalism blog).

The Surge Is Already Paying Dividends. Thanks.

The Dowd simile watch:

The American military’s cocky heroes were supposed to sweep in and carry off a poor, grateful Iraq to security and bliss, like Richard Gere did Debra Winger in the finale of “An Officer and a Gentleman.” (Maureen Dowd in today's New York Times column, Love Among the Ruins).

And ...

One reporter who writes about the war told me he thinks of the American entrenchment in Iraq more like a marriage that’s run out of gas, but you decide to stay together because of the kids. (Dowd).

And ...

Some women say that the Surge will not work because it’s like starting over with an old boyfriend: you think you’ve learned the pitfalls and can resume with more success — you can set benchmarks! — but instead you’re swiftly ensnared by the same old failures. (Dowd).

And ...

They may still speak diplomatically, but in body language, Condoleezza Rice and her chosen new deputy, John Negroponte, radiate irritation with the Iraqis, as though they are the most irksome of cousins or in-laws who have long overstayed their welcome, or children who not only don’t thank you for presents but also leave the playroom a mess. (Dowd).

And ... the clincher

With the Surge, as with the invasion of Iraq, W. is like the presumptuous date “who reserves a hotel room and then asks you to the prom,” as my friend Dana Calvo put it. (Dowd).

Republican, at the End of His Rope

...I remember the pride I felt when the statue of Saddam Hussein came down. I remember the thrill I felt when three times Iraqis risked their own lives to vote democratically in a way that was internationally verifiable as well as legitimate and important. Now all of those memories seem much like ashes to me. (Senator Gordon H. Smith, an Oregon Republican, in remarks on the Senate floor, saying he was at the "end of his rope" with Bush's Iraq policy).

For 'W,' a Weighty Message From Above.

Moments after the report of the Iraq Study Group descended on George W. Bush like a safe from a penthouse, its ten members fanned out in bipartisan squads to assure the world that they weren’t blaming anybody. (Talk of the Town, The New Yorker).

An Iraq Study Group Smorgasbord: From Big Macs to Fruit Salad (And a Lap Dance to Boot)

Terrorism could grow. As one Iraqi official told us, “Al Qaeda is now a franchise in Iraq, like McDonald’s.” (Excerpt from Iraq study group report).

One day after the study group rattled Washington with its bleak assessment of conditions in Iraq, its Republican co-chairman, James A. Baker III, said the White House must not treat the report “like a fruit salad” …. (Page One, New York Times).

And talking to the fanatical true believers in Iran (Ahmadinejad purged the foreign service last year, replacing experienced hands with ideological purists) about helping with security in Iraq is like inviting the wolf in for a drink and having Little Red Riding Hood give him a lap dance…. (Rick Moran on RightWingNutHouse.com blog).

As Senator Joseph Lieberman noted, “Asking Iran and Syria to help us succeed in Iraq is like your local fire department asking a couple of arsonists to help put out the fire. These people are flaming the fire.” (Heritage Foundation article).

Turning over security operations to Iraqi security forces that are dominated by the Shiite is like turning over the henhouse to the fox. Actually it would be more accurate to say it's like turning it over to your lazy dog who happens to be friends with the fox. (Three Wise Men blog).

Dealing with Syria is like dealing with a Mafia. (Post of FreeRepublic.com).

Iraq, Broken Glass & the Voice

Republicans are fighting among themselves -- or, rather, grumbling. They haven't, amazingly, broken out in war, and if they did, no one would be debating if it were a civil war. It would be like Iraq, like a dropped pane of glass that is jagged, shattered, dangerous. (Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal).

[On Henry Kissinger] And then you hear it: The Voice, a low rumble from around the corner, like heavy construction on the street outside. (New York magazine).

And …

Okay, I say, moving on to an event that seems relatively undeniable: the famous memo from 1969 he gave last year to former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson suggesting that withdrawing troops from Vietnam would be like giving “salted peanuts” to the public, who would demand more and more, leading to a premature defeat. (New York magazine).

Mob Scene at the Republican Caucus

“When Lyndon Johnson became Vice-President, he wasn’t welcome at Senate Democratic caucus meetings anymore, because it was for senators only,” Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told me. “But every Tuesday since Bush has been President it’s been like a Mafia funeral around here. There are, like, fifteen cars with lights and sirens, and Cheney and Karl Rove come to the Republican caucus meetings and tell those guys what to do. It’s all ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir.’ (Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker).

While no doubt convinced that Iraq had at least some chemical and biological weapons, Bush administration officials, like the cop framing a guilty man, vastly exaggerated the evidence. (Mark Danner in book review, New York Review of Books).


“The Echo Maker” is probably the best Powers novel so far. I say "probably," because it's not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book, and after that it's a matter of taste. Trying to describe it is a bit like four blind men trying to describe an elephant—which end do you start at, with something so large and multi-limbed? (Margaret Atwood, in New York Review of Books on new Richard Powers book).


You stagger out of Powers's novel happy to find yourself, like Scrooge the morning after, grasping your own bedpost, saying "There's no place like home," and hoping you still have a chance to set things right. (Margaret Atwood).

Flight Risk

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman strode into a Democratic caucus gathering like he owned the place or, at the very least, like someone who is a flight risk and could leave at any minute, taking the Democrats’ new majority with him. (New York Times, page one).

After the Thumpin': The NYT Turns Psychologist

Yet for someone whose presidency had just been repudiated, whose party had been sent reeling and whose defense secretary had just been sent packing, Mr. Bush also appeared strangely giddy, like someone who is acting a little odd after suffering a blow to the head, or a "thumpin'," to use the official presidential description. (Mark Leibovich in today's New York Times).

Rummy, With Hindsight

Bush’s endorsement of Rumsfeld is like the fox endorsing the wolf’s management of the hen house. (Letter to The Chicago Tribune).

Donald Rumsfeld famously said "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion" about France's unwillingness to go to war in Iraq. It turns out that going to war with Rumsfeld is like going duck hunting with Dick Cheney. (Post on USA Today site).

"Rumsfeld is like the football coach who is so confident of victory that he puts only 10 players on the field to prove a point," says one Army official. "Our fear is that he's going to play the whole season like this." (U.S. News and World Report).

Rumsfeld is like the last guest at the party who shows no signs of leaving, no matter how unsubtle the clues are getting.... ( Take It Personally blog).

Rumsfeld was like a little kid covering his ears so he can't hear something that might upset him. (Post on Plastic.com).

Rumsfeld is like a charging bull, and his anger knows no bounds. (Post on Last Chance Democracy Café).

“Don Rumsfeld is a patriot like few others whose tireless work on behalf of all of us is so truly remarkable. Don Rumsfeld is like that Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going and going. (Speech by Senator Jesse Helms)

What Bush Is Like

Your starter kit:

This sounds like a copout, I know, but describing George W. Bush is like doing origami with mittens on. (National Review Online, from 1999).

"George W. Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you'll pardon the expression." (Martin Sheen in a BBC interview).

Bush is like that playground bully who attacks and attacks and attacks to hide his own inadequacy, but the minute someone bigger and tougher comes along he melts into a puddle of petulant goo. (Washington Monthly)

Bush is like the oft-remarked Oakland CA. There is no there, there. (Post on Ezra Klein's blog)

Bush is like a PAC-10 football team: He just doesn't play defense well. (Paul Begala's blog on CNN.com).

No, Bush is like Dennis Kozlowski, denying his obviously crooked acts with a series of lame justifications.... (Post on MathewGross.com)

Bush is like a pyromaniac who returns to the scene of the crime. (Eleanor Clift) in Newsweek.

North Korea has described US President George W Bush as an "imbecile" and a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade". (BBC).

Bush is like every rich frat-boy-redneck-wannabe-cowboy-wannabe-soldier who wouldn't know real ideas or real work or real suffering if he hitched it to his ornamental pick up truck. (The Rude Pundit).

"George Bush is like a tortoise on a fence post," Finch said. "He has no idea how he got there. He has no idea how to get down. And he has no business being where he is. (Senator Bill Finch on political site).

"President Bush is like all of the characters Dorothy encounters in the Wizard of Oz, all rolled into one - he has no brain, no heart, no courage." (Post on The Daily Kos).

Bush is like someone's old dad who just doesn't get it, a person who's not able to grow or change. (Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 in RollingStone Magazine).

He is like the distant friend who somehow ends up going to the party with you, and you worry he's going to get drunk and say the wrong thing and just start talking craziness. (Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie in RollingStone Magazine).

Fumes, Magic Dust and Found Art

During the last two elections, the fumes of Air Force One worked like political magic dust for the candidates lucky enough to score visits from Mr. Bush. (New York Times, page one)

And ... about the Kerry dust-up: "You should all be ashamed of yourselves for acting like children rather than rational grownups. What is happening to America??"

Richard Buckner's lyrics are like found art -- a postcard from someone's grandmother blown into your backyard, or a breakup letter wedged against a curb at the record store. They also work like memory works: A flash of color married to a couple of sentences, images and words that imply more than explain but still manage to resonate and stir emotions. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Bush Meets (or Collides With) the Simile

"I have said that the sanction regime is like Swiss cheese — that meant that they weren't very effective." — White House press conference, Washington, D.C., Feb. 22, 2001 (Slate)