Bush is now the embarrassing uncle the Republicans can't hide
"With the departure of Karl Rove, the stench of failure hangs over the president - and his party wants to ignore the smell"

My word, the British do say the most cheeky things sometimes .

George Bush likes his sleep. While campaigning for the presidency in 2000 his prize possession was a feather pillow. On the night that Saddam Hussein was executed he went to bed at 9pm with strict orders not to be woken. When the then CIA director, George Tenet, tried to alert him to news of the first night's bombing of Iraq he was sent away. "He is the type of person who sleeps at 9.30pm after watching the domestic news," Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah told Okaz, a Saudi newspaper.

Doesn't that sound just like George? He's always fancied his snooze time, then, hasn't he? Pip pip and back to The Guardian Fun House!

Last week Fox News asked the neocon commentator Charles Krauthammer how much time Bush had to promote his agenda. "None," said Krauthammer. "It's over. There is no agenda."

Blimey, I hope seeing a quote from one of his own like that in a big English newspaper doesn't upset him. If he reads it, I mean. If he can read at all, I mean.

True, too, that the Iraq war is going badly. But then it has never been going well, and that has never seemed to bother him either. He has described himself as "the decider", but never "the contemplator". This too is his style.

This is embarrassingly entertaining.

"Friends who were obnoxious in their praise for him just don't mention him any more," says Rick Holmes from Derry. "He's like the embarrassing uncle you just don't want to talk about."

That whole uncle thing was worth repeating.

There is even talk that Republicans might not invite Bush to their convention. "If they're smart, no," the Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio told Newsweek. "Especially if things don't change in Iraq, we'll have the problem the Democrats had in 1968 with Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. The question becomes: where do we hide the president?"

With the WMD?

For the next year and a half he may need more than a feather pillow to get him to sleep.

Say good-night, George. Good-night, George.