Arianna Huffington, pundit: “Gotta be Karl Rove. He knows where all the bodies are buried. Or John Ashcroft. Just think of the chapter headings, like ‘How I Lost an Election to a Dead Man.’ ”
Hugo Gurdon, editor-in-chief, The Hill: “Jayson Blair’s book is Burning Down My Masters’ House. Maybe Colin Powell’s should be Propping Up My Master’s House.”
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC host: “Barney and Spot—the dogs with him when he fainted. I never bought the ‘pretzel theory.’ ”
Peggy Noonan, speechwriter: “I heard Barney kept a diary. He said the dog run was a mess. And whenever he ran into the cabinet room with a tennis ball, he felt ‘like a blind man in a room full of deaf people.’ Turns out Barney was a yellow-dog Democrat. Barney died last week. Put it together.”
Donna Brazile, Democratic operative: “Colin Powell’s strong voice of reason and razor-sharp intellect have been silenced in favor of the hard-liners Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Cheney. One day, Powell will be forced to face his legacy as a secretary of State who oversaw a great reversal in America’s respect in the world. I imagine Powell will later argue that he was a lone voice of dissent.”