Why This Is Hilarious

During the UN meetings yesterday, Reuters apparently snapped this picture. The hand holding the pencil belongs to President Bush. Its intended audience is not the American public, but Condi Rice, the Secretary of State. The note says: "I think I may need a bathroom break? Is this possible..."

D.C. Blogger Wizbang said of this photo: "You can be sure that the moonbats will be barking tonight..." (From Wikipedia: "Moonbat is a political epithet coined in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of 'The Libertarian Samizdata,' a libertarian weblog. It was originally a play on the last name of George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian, but now the term enjoys great currency in the conservative and libertarian blogosphere as an all-purpose insult for modern liberals, peace protestors, and other ideological opponents. It is similar to the epithets Feminazi or Idiotarian.")

Anyway, regarding the picture. Bark. Bark. Bark.

This picture is hilarious. It's hilarious because it resonates so soundly. It resonates because the United States of America somehow put into office an ineffectual, bumbling manchild, who, especially of late, has done everything in his power to remind us that he is an ineffectual, bumbling manchild. Heh-heh. Hey, Condi, can I go to the potty?

It is one weirdly personal glimpse of the President of the United States, his relationship with his closest staff, and yet another telegraph from George W. Bush that indicates that he, frankly, doesn't want the friggin' job anymore. He takes five weeks of vacation. He motors by a protestors camp. He comments that it is important for him to get on with his life. He bikes with Lance Armstrong and continues clearing the brush. What is it with brush and Texas, anyway?

Then, Katrina hits, and he keeps his normal schedule. His staff is reportedly reluctant to tell him that he will have cut his vacation because an entire region has been drowned. His reaction is painfully sluggish and punctuated with unfortunate photo-ops: The little boy looking out the plane window. The kiss-ass gift of a guitar from a country star.

Then there is the next stage, when Bush finally realizes that it is a crisis, but reacts not to the gushing walls of water, but to the poopoo hitting the fan. His first words are completely tone-deaf, as are his second and third. He talks of rebuilding when the thousands of baby-bird convention center strandees are still fresh in American minds. He talks of looking forward to sippin' mint juleps on Trent Lott's new deck, then offers the backslap heard 'round the world: Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. But the backslap wouldn't do. He'd have to take to the newly formed canals of New Orleans and hug black women, women whose only concern seems to be that they want desperately to stop feeling so lost. The adage is overused these days, but it is apt: George Bush, the naked emporer, and, at last, the little child is piping up from out of the crowd.

So, the picture of this note passed, it is hilarious. The President of the United States had to go to the bathroom during a high-level diplomatic meeting, and so he scribbles a note to his secretary of state, and the photographer at long last pays for his fancy zoom lens. That on its face is funny enough. What's hilarious somehow is the outrageous symbolism it seems to offer. Yes, Mr. President, I think a bathroom break is possible. In fact, I think it is a fine idea. Perhaps you should lock the door for a couple of years or so.

Just turn on the fan, please.