Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

    Well, after a week our company has left for the airport.  The two IV's that were pumping Scotch and Tennessee whiskey into my arteries have been swapped out for much needed Zoloft and Ritalin drips.  My eyes feel like they've been turned inside out, and I'm feeling very paranoid.  Bastards.  I've spent the past few hours luxuriating in the warm glow of television images from Baghdad, and the knowledge that, if I bothered to look, Katie Couric was desperately trying to find some bad news in the situation.

I've no doubt that this remarkable interview with former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has been plastered far and wide, but it's too delicious for me not to get it into my archives.

Yesterday, the New York Sun published an interview with him, which included the following:

Q: "How's the war in Iraq going?"
A: "I think it's gone exceedingly well. I think that the media in substantial numbers are fools and are just simply showing their left-wing bias against Bush and those Republicans and Democrats who support the war against Iraq for all the reasons set forth in U.N. Resolution 1441. I think the president did the right thing, is doing the right thing, and I think the war is going quite well. . . .
Q: "What is next after Iraq?"
A: "I believe the president announced the policy of the country in a succinct way when he said that we will go after the terrorists and the countries that harbor them. I've got great confidence in what I think is the finest cabinet on security and defense matters ever assembled in Washington."
Q: "You've crossed party lines in the past. Will you do it again?"
A: "Yes. I'm probably going to vote for George Bush next time. All things being equal, even though I disagree with President Bush on a whole host of domestic matters, from taxes and Social Security and prescription drugs . . . Nevertheless, the single most important matter to me, and one that should be to the whole United States, is terrorism, security of the country, security of the homeland, standing up to those who want to destroy us, and he's doing that better than Gore would have, and I don't know anyone who would do it as well at this moment in the Democratic party."

For those who care intelligently about the security of the country, it's just not safe yet to vote Democratic.