Schadenfreude!?!

When a rival stumbles or enemy falls, I don't get gleeful; instead, I suddenly realize that my adversary is a person, too, and often I start to hurt for him or her. Weakness disarms me. I wanted to cry when Saddam Hussein, looking like a homeless person, was forced to submit to medical examinations on video. I spent months hating Judith Miller, the Times reporter who cozied up to Scooter Libby and planted the administration's false WMD stories in her paper-- until she became an object of universal derision. And that imperious future Stepford Wife in my Negotiation class? Saw her cry and fell in love.

So I guess I shouldn't be surprised about my muddled reaction to the news that George W. Bush's ratings have fallen to an all-time low of 37 percent. Don't get me wrong-- I don't feel sorry for him: he's used too much power too destructively and he's too egregiously abused the public trust. But, like Tony Kushner, I used to fantasize about someone assassinating him!

Maybe what I'm feeling is that it's too-little-too-late: the American people have only NOW wised up to W's incompetence and power lust. If only it'd happened six years ago.