Reach Out and Touch No One.

"Doing the math, you've got to figure that the 12 wise men and one wise woman had about 30 seconds apiece to say their piece to the president about Iraq, where vicious assaults this week have killed almost 200 and raised U.S. troop fatalities to at least 2,189.

It must have been like a performance by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which boils down the great plays and books to their essence. Proust is 'I like cookies.' Othello raps that he left Desdemona 'all alona, didn't telephona.' 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' condense into 'The Idiodity.' 'Henry V' is 'A king's gotta do what a king's gotta do,' and 'Antony and Cleopatra' is 'Never get involved in Middle Eastern affairs.'

Beyond taking a class picture ringed around Mr. Bush's bizarrely empty desk - a mesmerizing blend of 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'The Last Supper' and a 'Sopranos' ad - the former secretaries of state and defense had to make the most of their brief colloquy with W."

Reach Out and Touch No One by Maureen Dowd via The Era.

And the news behind the picture.