Liberal press? What liberal press?

President Bush was "caught off guard" and "stumped" during his press conference yesterday by a hard-charging, no-holds-barred investigative reporter who asked him about some guy in Jordan who was supposedly arrested and charged with "slander" for giving a speech on why Palestinians boycott American goods and services.

Well, a few things come to mind after reading this article. First, the reporter who asked the question didn't know what the hell he was talking about (surprise!) because, according to The Washington Post,

(Jordanian) government officials said at the time of his arrest that the charges against him were related to his contention that the Jordanian government was buying U.S. weapons for use against its own people. At the time of his arrest, Hattar said he did not mention Jordan in his speech. But in the following question period, he said he used Jordan as an example of developing countries buying U.S. weapons for use against "their own people."

In other words, he wasn't charged with slandering the United States. Hell, that's no crime, anyway. If slandering the U.S. were a crime, Jacques Chirac would be serving a 2 to 20 hitch.

Second, Palestinians boycott American goods and services not because they don't want to buy them, but because they can't afford them. They spend all their time, energy and money shooting and hacking each other to death and occasionally trying to blow Israeli schoolkids to pieces.

Third, and far more cynical and disturbing than a semi-ignorant reporter asking a meaningless, ill-informed question, is the contention by the Post that President Bush was "caught off-guard" and "stumped". Really? Well, if I had been there, I could have said, "Thank you, Mr. President. What happened to my cat?" Or maybe, "Thank you, Mr. President. When will we be getting an automatic traffic control signal (that's a stoplight, for you dummies) at the corner of Oak and Jackson?" Or perhaps, "Thank you Mr. President. When will Rudy Giuliani get that molar drilled and filled?"

Does anyone in their right mind think that President Bush should have any idea about the legal troubles of some Palestinian blow-hard in Jordan or about the fate of my cat or about the stoplight installation at Oak and Jackson or about Rudy's next dental appointment? Well, yes, someone does. The liberal press.

How about this? "President Bush was asked a question at yesterday's news conference and he was unaware of the issue to which reporter (insert name of idiot and idiot's employer) was referring. So, the Post did some checking and discovered the following;...".

But no, the president must be labeled, "caught off-guard" and "stumped". Just as poorly informed about about some ordinary Jordanian's legal problems as he is about my cat.