All this quivering, getting to you?

I was thinking, it might just be

timely for the Speaker to accept

one of those speaking engagements

which are the bane of a San Fran-

ciscan's existence, to mollify

the unseemly vibrations coursing

through her Party from the unend-

ing teases of the President. He

plays their strings of righteous

moral compulsion as the gift they

are to himself, from his spoiling

Office of infinite prerogatives;

and there is cause to soothe this

quivering with a little demonstra-

tion of sang froid that's seen it

all. At least she, of all obser-

vers, will understand how sumptu-

ously it suits the President, to

be chided on arms concessions to

someone unlikely to employ them.

A head fake, contrary to inter-

est, is a bauble to polish as

fondly as Yorick's skull, in the

pageant of histrionic vengeance.