No Pest Strip

After his very public consideration of Kill Bill and the Jewish Question, The Original Gregg Easterbrook appeared to have had his blog taken away from him by The New Republic. Easterbrook—who, you'll recall, blamed the blog's lack of an editor for his golden-mouthed outburst—may have been grateful for this protection from his own mad, lustful, implacable id.

But with his latest offering at TNR (reg. req.), Easterbrook proves that when it comes to fatuity, he is as resourceful as Ulysses, or even MacGyver* **. I would say the column's highlight is GE's very special shoutout to his "friend" James Fallows. (Iron Rule of Journalism #38, which is followed here: Anytime a columnist refers to another columnist as a "friend," he'll be following that endearment with a sharp shiv in the back within half a paragraph.) Easterbrook goes one better though, by not only endorsing the deathless "flypaper" justification for invading Iraq, but, as Jim Henley notes, not realizing he is the last person in America to come up with that particular brainstorm. Sez Henley:

On rereading Easterbrook's closing paragraph, the really sad part jumps out at me: he thought of this all on his own. He seems completely oblivious to the fact that this particular pipe dream started tickling drowsy hawkish brains last year. Finally, a thought, he writes, managing only one accurate word in three.

*"McGyver" misspelling has been corrected.

**"McGyver" misspelling has been corrected to "MacGyver," which is how it's spelled at imdb.com. And if that isn't right, I'm gonna change the whole allusion to a Colt Seavers reference.