Hic

Peggy Noonan must've gotten that longed-for 50-gallon drum of Ancient Age 'neath her Christmas tree:

But history moves quickly. His people hit reseat; he announced a refocus. The economy is an almost unnoticed triumph. Christmas spending is up 10%. Iraq votes yet again, amid pictures of purple fingers. Mr. Bush's numbers go up. He is dinged but not done. All will hinge on Iraq. History will say Bush was a dramatic and consequential president who broke through the wall of history and successfully reordered the most dangerous part of the world, or a dramatic and all-too-consequential president whose decisions yielded disaster. It's like looking at Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and wondering, How is this going to go?

Are you a pessimist? Then you're thinking Eccliastes: "Vanity, all is vanity."

That's what people are saying about your Pope book, Pegaloon. Now dry out and learn to proofread.

Speculation has it that the owners of the Wall Street Journal's publisher will sell the rag to the highest bidder this year. One can only hope that the new owner will sweep out the freaks -- Nooners, John Thumb Fund, Taranto and Dotty Rabinowitz, to name a few -- as a first step to restoring the paper's credibility.