It was one of those did-it-really-say-that? instances, a flash of disbelief at the astoundingly inane in print. But there it was, nevertheless, in yesterday’s opening to a Washington Post editorial:

“President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina has been, to put it kindly, faltering. He has fallen short both rhetorically and substantively. The rhetorical failure is less important but perhaps more surprising for a politician with his strong communications skills.”

George W. Bush, yes, that George W. Bush, has strong communications skills. George W. Bush, as in the oratorical bumbler, the malapropism master, the syntactic offender, the mind-of-mush thinker, the verbal stumbler, the dear-in-the-headlights responder, the cerebral clown - that George W. Bush has “strong communications skills.”

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