The coverage of the Rummy scolding is amazing. Even Bill Clinton’s classless drubbing of Donna Shalala for mildly criticizing him about Monica Lewinsky (after inviting criticism) didn’t get remotely this sort of page one treatment. The last time we saw anything like this was the Reagan-took-Stockman-to-the-woodshed moment two decades ago. Which is why I think Bush should have come up with a good euphemism for the scolding in order to enshrine it in the lexicon.
“Pimp slap” is my current favorite. But, as with the “woodshed” remark, it would work only if the President himself used the phrase. “President George W. Bush announced yesterday that he ‘pimp-slapped’ the Secretary of Defense in a private meeting in the Oval Office…”
Fans of the David Chappelle show can conjure their own images of Bush smacking Rummy and saying “I’m the Commander-in-Chief B**ch.”