A TRIP DOWN EEEEUUWWW LANE

I can't let the fifth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" pass without recalling the most squirm-inducing op-ed written about that day, a Wall Street Journal piece by Lisa Schiffren that I've quoted here a couple of times before:

Hey, Flyboy
Women voters agree: President Bush is a hottie!

I had the most astonishing thought last Thursday. After a long day of hauling the kids to playdates and ballet, I turned on the news. And there was the president, landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, stepping out of a fighter jet in that amazing uniform, looking--how to put it?--really hot. Also presidential, of course. Not to mention credible as commander in chief. But mostly "hot," as in virile, sexy and powerful.

You don't see a lot of that in my neighborhood, the Upper West Side of Manhattan. (I'm told there's more of it in the "red" states.) I was mesmerized. I flipped around watching W. land on many channels. I watched the whole speech, which was fine. But a business suit just doesn't do it the way a flight suit does....

It gets worse.

I decided to run a reality check among the soccer moms I spend my days with....

Alexandra, an unmarried event planner in her 30s, e-mailed: "Hot? SO HOT!!!!! THAT UNIFORM!" In a more restrained way, my friend Maggie, a writer/mom, explained: "I think he is actually protecting me and my sons, and I find that attractive in a man." Suzi, who did her mom time and now writes biographies, also began with restraint. I asked, casually, what she thought about President Bush. She answered, carefully, "He's so confident. He is a very credible, trustworthy leader." "Yeah," I pursue, "but do you think he's sexy?" "Oh God, yes," she said. "I mean, that swagger. George Bush in a pair of jeans is a treat to watch." ...

It goes on like that until Schiffren is literally imagining the First Couple in flagrante.

(Schiffren, of course, is the woman who recently told us that Obama's parents must have been commies because all the interracial couples she knew when she was a kid in Manhattan were commies. Her career highlights including writing speeches for both Rick Santorum and Dan Quayle; yes, she wrote the Murphy Brown speech.)