Sometimes the reasonable one shows up

For some strange reason, Christopher Hitchens is hiding his quite cogent opinions on the Israel-Lebanon crisis behind subscription at the Wall Street Journal, while he feeds trivialities to the freeloading readers at Slate (two columns on Joe Wilson and one on Mel Gibson have spanned the crisis so far at the crimson-hued outfit). Here's his closing paragraph at the WSJ, one which features an interesting if blinkered disillusionment with George W. Bush:

Opinion is curdling, in many instances, into a simple revulsion against the incompetence and cruelty of Israel's highly visible actions. Has Karen Hughes been heard from lately, or at all? Who decided that the president should ignore the eccentric recent letter from Ahmadinejad, and thus miss the chance of addressing the Iranian people over the heads of their self-selected leaders? Whose job is it to consider the whole intricate web of which Tehran constitutes the center? John Wayne, a hero to many "stand tall" conservatives, used to say modestly that he didn't really "act," he just "reacted." That seems a regrettably apt description of the administration over the past three weeks, as it appears to find absolutely everything coming to it as a surprise.

Past surprises have included 9/11, Katrina, the collapse of law and order in Baghdad, the resiliency of the Taliban, and so on -- all of which have drawn rather less scrutiny from Hitch than this particular lapse in judgement. One of his questions we can answer: "Has Karen Hughes been heard from lately?" Indeed she has -- last spotted at the Shannon airport bar.