Wright HotReport

This week Colin Powell had his prostate removed at Walter Reed Hospital. That apparently is not the only baggage the Secretary of State is being relieved of.

First, Jim "Velvet Hammer" Baker is being sent to France and Germany to win concessions from our beloved allies with regard to Iraqi debt piled up under the "Hussein Administration." Baker is reporting straight to W....the State Department and Powell are not in the loop. And it's working.

Further, Moammar "Spellcheck" Quadafy (or is it Khadafy...or Kuh-daffy) is apparently working on a program to join real life again by turning in all of his WMD, etc, to inspectors voluntarily. This has been spear-headed by Condi Rice and again has not been under any sort of State Department auspices whatsoever. And this too, appears to be working (tho it is early).

All of which means that apparently the administration has figured out who the weak link in foreign policy is....and allowed him some "time on the DL." And with this high profile player on the sidelines...the team is racking up some nice wins. About time.

RALEIGH -- For those of us totally sick to death of Karl Rove and his "new tone" philosophy of political success in Washington (that unfortunately, his boss, Georoge W. Bush has bought into), the WEST WING TV show has given us a few reasons to cheer.

Last night, a new and rising star on the Republican side (played by Emily Proctor of CSI Miami fame) totally manhandled a George Stefanopolous type (played by Rob Lowe) on a ficticious typical us versus them TV talk show.

She did it by decidely kicking the "new tone" strategy to the curb, called Lowe a liar and used straight talk and facts to dominate the discussion and she apparantly was not too concerned with upsetting any sensitive moderate types. Were it real life, it would have been occaision for common sense conservatives nationwide to cheer. As it is...maybe it could at least be a hint to the desparately out of touch RNC and the rest of the Republican machinery in D.C. As a nice touch, the show ends with the liberals trying to hire her away from the conservative side. Now THAT is telling. No doubt the Dems would be scared to death of a conservative like that.

And this was the second such episode in a couple weeks (and I rarely watch the show). Several weeks ago, the Repbulican Speaker of the House threw a monkey wrench into the political strategy of the Dems by playing hardball on a government shut down issue...a far cry from the lace panty leadership Republicans are now getting from Speaker Hastert, Senator Frist and unfortunately, President Bush (on domestic policy). The writers of the West Wing know what many of us in "fly over" country know but what the RNC and DC machinery sadly does not. The Republicans would be dangerous if they would every actually play hard...instead of just being accused of it and cowering away.

RALEIGH -- If you want to guarantee the wrong conclusion, then asking the wrong question will generally yield the desired results. Such is the case with seemingly dozens of presidential candidates and members of the liberal pundistocracy and their now worn out question du jour.

Which of course is the "are we safer today now that Saddam Hussein has been captured" question. Their preferred answer is no....which then leads to their preferred conclusions which is that the capture of "the president of Iraq" is simultaneously no big deal and proof that the war is unjustified and a waste.

In truth, the most literal and accurate answer to the "safer today" question is technically probably not. The intended conclusion of those who so self-righteously ask the question could not be further from the truth, however.

This conclusion begs us to examine what the meaning of "today" is. But the Hussein question was NEVER a question of today. It was always a question of COMING MONTHS AND YEARS. Iraq was a gathering threat, not an imminent one. And in response to the PROPER question, which is "are we safer in the future with the capture of Saddam Hussein" the answer is a resounding ABSOLUTELY!

(That future started getting safer when the Taliban fell...was brightened by the fall of the Baath regime in Baghdad...and is furthered even more by the capture of Saddam. No single step, including the discovery of a dead Bin Laden or the capture of a live one, will make life perfect forever and ever and therefore scrutiny that requires instant perfection is invalid on its face.)

Further dissected, the question of whether our troops are safer today....may also be answered probably not. But ask are they safer six months from now and the answer is almost without a doubt, yes. Six years from now? Even more likely.

Now assuming our troops (and the rest of us) would like to have a chance at peace and prosperity six months or six years from now in addition to today, one can assume that the capture of Hussein is indeed both significant and a worthy cause. The problem with the sound byte media culture is that too many people with shallow thinking come to the wrong conclusions because they've let the wrong people ask the wrong questions without the right analysis.

As an exmaple, my kids are absolutely no safer today because Michael Jackson has been charged....but it's still a good thing. Only a liberal pundit would look at a conservative success and deem it a failure becuase it's not instantly and totally 100% perfect.