Marie Antoinette 2.0

If you want to know what's wrong with the party in power, take a look at Barbara Bush. She just gave a donation to the Katrina relief fund, and that's a good thing, right? Well, sure, except she earmarked it; it can only be used to buy products from a company owned by her son Neil.

So she gets a nice little tax write-off for enriching her family and calls it charity.

The New York Times gets a list of Dick Cheney's travel requirements.

The document listed 13 requirements. Among them were these: All televisions sets in Mr. Cheney's hotel suite should be tuned to Fox News, all lights should be on, and the thermostat set at 68 degrees. Mr. Cheney should have a queen- or king-size bed, a desk with a chair, a private bathroom, a container for ice, a microwave oven and a coffee pot, with decaf brewed before arrival.

The vice president should also have four cans of caffeine-free Diet Sprite and four to six bottles of water. He must have the hotel restaurant menu, with a copy faxed ahead to his advance office. If his wife is with him, she should have two bottles of sparkling water, either Calistoga or Perrier.

For his reading material, Mr. Cheney should have The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and the local newspaper.

No word on whether he has blue M&M's removed from candy bowls.

Meanwhile, Babs' other son goes on television and pronounces himself mystified at the incompetence of his own government.

"Obviously," said the critic in chief, "there are some times when government bureaucracies haven't responded the way we wanted them to, and like citizens, you know, I don't like that at all." Yes, and if you can't do something about it, who can?

Have some cake, boys.