GEORGE W. BUSH IS ANN COULTER

Because he's still, by law, the president of the United States and the de facto leader of his party, we're all supposed to take seriously the fact that Bush just compared Obama's foreign policy to appeasement of Hitler.

I dunno -- my first reaction was, "What, him again? His approval rating is 28 percent. Everybody hates him except Joe Lieberman [who, of course, seconded what Bush said]. Does anybody else even care what Bush thinks?"

It was the same reaction I had last month when Ann Coulter compared Obama's first book to Mein Kampf. A righty blogger said, "Ann Coulter's gonna get yelled at again." I replied (correctly):

No, she isn't. Over here on the left, we just see her as a pathetic has-been shouting, "Why aren't you paying attention to me anymore?" This just seems like a Godwin's Law Hail Mary thrown in the forlorn hope that it will get her back into the public eye. I don't know about other lefties, but I sure don't intend to help her do that.

Paying no attention would be the ideal reaction to Bush's statement. In fact, that is going to be the reaction, except among Beltway journalists and those of us in the fever swamp of the political blogosphere. Who the hell in the real world takes George W. Bush's pronouncements even remotely seriously anymore? What is he but a male Coulter, a has-been wingnut provocateur, an arrested-development case who's overstayed his welcome?