Just when you think the Bush Administation cannot add more chutz to chutzpah, they exceed all expectations. In a Los Angeles Times opinion column, Lawrence Weschler notes that the Bush/Cheney Website's "Compassion Photo Gallery" is basically a bunch of pictures of Bush (and the first lady) with minorities.

"First one up: short-sleeved Bush, holding a black kid in his arms, a bleacher full of black kids behind him, and he's merrily waving to the crowd. Click 'next.' And it's Bush at a Waco Habitat for Humanity building site, his arm draped around a black woman, his other hand tapping the shoulder of another of the black construction volunteers. . . .

"And now, there he is again, reading to a different roomful of black schoolchildren. It's amazing -- photo after photo, 19 in all, and almost every single one of them giving further testimony to the astonishing capaciousness of the guy's Compassion, by which we are given to understand: He just has no trouble at all touching black people! . . .

"Why, the Compassion page even includes a photo of him standing next to his own secretary of State, Colin Powell!"

If we as a country were not in such deep shit, this would be incredibly funny. But it's not. I have not seen a lower time in America since perhaps the Iran hostage situation during the Carter administration, or deep in the Vietnam War when we were gathering up body bags in great numbers. Well, you could throw in the Nixon-Watergate Hearings, but in truth, those were fun days. Old Tricky Dick was getting his come-uppence. Perhaps this two will occur with Dubya, but I suspect our only way out is a total defeat of this incredibly incompetent man and the expunging of his evil puppetmasters, Chaney and Rumsfeld.

Stay tuned. It gets weirder every day.

But at least Friedman has come to his senses. There is hope.