Grownups Can Play This Game, Too

The term "kicking the can down the road" has taken on new life in the waning months of the Age of Bush as decisions on major stuff like a couple of wars are put off so that they can be dumped in the lap of the next president.

The term derives from a children's game called Kick the Can in which one kid kicks a can and the person who is "it" has to retrieve it before he or she can chase other players, giving those players time to hide or scatter or whatever the rules are. I myself passed many a pleasant evening playing Kick the Can and a variation, Capture the Flag, in a woods behind the dining hall at a summer camp I attended.

Meanwhile, the White House surely is pleased that a federal appeals court has kicked a can known as the Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolton subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary Committee in connection with the U.S. Attorney Scandal so far down the road that one of the judges is perplexed that the 110th Congress will be history before this important case can be heard on its merits.

Ah-fricking-hem.