Has Bush Jumped The Shark?

I'm accustomed to being unpleasantly surprised by the tactical brilliance of the Bush team, but I'm beginning to wonder where the brilliance went. It's hard to fathom how anyone is supposed to be pleased by Bush's claim that he can pay for $200 billion worth of Katrina reconstruction costs without raising taxes by cutting "unnecessary government programs."

If I'm a liberal, I respond: The hell you can! Keep your hands off our already-underfunded programs for health care, education, infrastructure, housing, veterans, etc. etc. etc.

And if I'm a conservative, I respond: The hell you say! What have you been doing as president for the past five years--five years during which you have never vetoed a single spending bill--if you now tell us that the government has $200 billion worth of unnecessary programs!?

Who exactly--other than people so blinded by the Bush cult of personality that they would find ways to praise him if he became a serial killer--is going to laud this latest irresponsible gambit as an act of foresighted statesmanship?

As a Mets fan who has said "This is finally the year when the Mets will overtake the Braves" every spring for the past six years, I hesitate to say this--but is it possible that the Bush administration has finally jumped the shark?