Yes, the blood is in the water, and the lapdogs have tossed aside their collars and taken out the extra rows of teeth. Well, perhaps not all that. But still, this is fun:

Pressed to defend his foreign policy, Bush instead cited the "stakes" involved in the Middle East and North Korea -- 13 times.

"I understand the stakes," Bush announced. "I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes."

He made good on that promise. Five times he said "the stakes are high," occasionally adding that "the stakes are really high" and even that, "as a matter of fact, they couldn't be higher."

"I know this sounds [as if] I'm just saying it over and over again," Bush admitted. But repetition is crucial to learning; to that end, Bush also said four times that the enemy is trying to establish a "caliphate."

Dissatisfied with the reporters' prickly questions, Bush went about answering his own. He said abandoning Iraq would allow terrorists to launch new attacks on America. "How do I know that would happen?" Bush asked himself. "Because that's what the enemy has told us," he answered.

When a questioner asked about the credibility of the administration's threats toward North Korea, Bush said: "I thought you were going to ask . . . 'How come you didn't use military action?' " Bush then replied: "My answer is that I believe the commander in chief must try all diplomatic measures."

"I'll ask myself a follow-up," Bush continued. "If that's the case, why did you use military action in Iraq?" His answer to himself: "Because we tried the diplomacy."

I spend a lot of time here bitching about braindead, kneepad wearing, blatantly partisan, hacktackular cocktail party closet cases in the media. But there is still some talent in the press pool, and when they want to, they can remind us why someone signs their checks. This article is a nice blend of mockery, snark, and not so subtle reminders of the various idiocies that have been the true measure of the Bush pretzlency since its inception. Would that we'd seen more of this over the last six years.

But as far as Beltway Kremlinology goes, pieces like this are uplifting, for they suggest that all those internal polls I'm hearing about are true, and the Authoritarian party is on the outs. So Kudos to Dana, and any of the rest of his fellow Fifth columnists who want to be the first in line at the Democratic victory parties this November. We'll never completely trust you, but we welcome you to the bandwagon and hope you stay a while.