I remember a popular classified, versions of which would frequently appear in newspapers in India. It went something like this, written in staccato telegram style to save money.
Dear Son, Come Home. All Forgiven. Mother Critical.

I’d read that and wonder what the prodigal son had done – fallen in love with the wrong girl, run away to be a Bollywood star or got into drugs?

Now I see the Washington equivalent of that frantic telegram.
Dear Dr. Gates, come home. All forgiven. Iraq critical.

Some of the very senators who voted against him when he was up for his job to head the CIA during Bush I were all too happy to vote for him this time around. They just couldn’t stop talking about his candor. That candor didn’t extend to his mysterious role in IranContra. No matter, Iraq’s critical. All’s forgiven. Everyone was happy to vote for Not-Rumsfeld. The country had demanded change. And dammit, the Senate would give them change – if not on the ground in Iraq, at least in the post of the Defense Secretary.

But speaking of change, has Robert Gates changed? Did Dr. Gates have a mea culpa or two in the last decade or so that I never heard about? All the factors that had resulted in him getting the most no-votes any CIA head had ever received – what happened to them? Apparently all forgiven.

Mr. Gates goes to Washington and instantly gets a facelift. He is suddenly a moderate voice, a refreshing voice, honest, thoughtful. At the hearings NPR kept mentioning how soft-spoken he was. And I was thinking what does it say about where Washington is these days that suddenly the old Cold Warriors – the Gates, the Bakers, the Poindexters are reincarnated as the bipartisan realists.

In Gates we have the not-Rumsfeld. I am sure the U.N. will soon get a not-Bolton. And in 2008 the Republican nominee will surely be running as not-Bush.

Speaking on not-Bush I read with befuddlement about Bush Sr. bursting into tears as he talked about elder son Jeb Bush’s stiff upper lip when he lost the Florida governorship the first time around.

I read and re-read the transcript trying to figure out what on earth was so poignant about that story. As the former president broke down in tears while talking about Jeb Bush’s “decency” and “leadership,” I was thinking he’s surely not crying about that. After all Jeb Bush came back to win two terms as governor.

And then I realized if he hadn’t lost that first election he would have been the one running for President instead of George W. Was the old man having a “What if” moment?

Then an even more chilling thought struck me. Decency. Leadership. My God, what was H.W. hinting at? Jeb Bush in 2008? The President we should have had, but running this time as not-Bush!