britneybush(Image by darkblack.)

Has anyone else noticed the similarities between the arc of President Bush's (mis)fortunes and those of Britney Spears? Britney announced that she was ditching husband Kevin Federline the same day that Rummy left the Pentagon and for a short period of time fans of Britney and Bush all did the happy dance.

"Boy howdy, I'm glad that's over!" they chorused, "Now we can get back to the way things used to be and party like it's 2003!"

And doubtless they all cringed in unison as their hopes of spreads in "W" magazine, number-one singles, and a Glorious Victory in Iraq turned to ashes. Because K-Fed wasn't the problem, any more than Rums-Fe'd was, as the ensuing months of increasingly erratic and frightening behavior of both pop star and president have shown.

Now things seem to be reaching something of a nadir.

There's President Bush going all last ten minutes of 'Scarface' on us:

[S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.

And:

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”

And then there's this:

NEW YORK -- The editor-in-chief of OK! magazine called a recent photo shoot with Britney Spears "the most bizarre shoot" on which she's ever worked.

Sarah Ivens told The Associated Press she's "never seen anything like it."

Iven said during last Thursday's shoot, Spears wiped grease on a designer dress, treating it like "a napkin," and sat back and watched while her puppy defecated on a $6,700 designer gown.

If that puppy's name was Alberto and the gown had a print of the Constitution on it, we'd be in serious risk of a major citation from the Department of Cheap Symbolism about now.

She said that Spears also took frequent trips to the bathroom -- leaving the door open -- and complained the high-end clothes for the shoot were not sexy, short or tight enough.

Ivens said that after about three hours, Spears bolted before the shoot was over, walking away with more than $14,000 of borrowed apparel.

And that would be our national treasury moving to Dubai.

But that's a whole other post. In the meantime, surely someone must intervene and save these two jumped-up trailer-trash naïfs from themselves. Can any brave soul pierce the bubble of sycophantism and delusion that surrounds them before it's too late?

Won't someone please think of the children?