Mr. Speaker, What's the State of the Union?

We get to find out Wednesday night.

The Bush Administration may have pulled off the political play of the week by successfully keeping speculation about the SOTU speech off the Sunday morning chat shows. I listened to "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" for a few hours Sunday and there was no mention of the pending address to a joint session of Congress. Instead, it was all glowing praise for the success of the election in Iraq.

My favorite part of the annual event is when the sergeant at arms announces the president: "Mr. Speaker, the President of the United STATES!" There could easily be some sort of game made of the number of times the president is interrupted by applause, if only Republicans stand or if Democrats do, too, and how many times GWB will say these words: freedom, liberty, democracy, and social security. I doubt he'll mention "privatization" or "screwing the next generation" in those terms, even though that's what he really means.

My current state is being sick, resulting in me being extra-cynical, so I will leave it there until after Wednesday night.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.