Game shows, cops and robbers, humiliation derbies, TV has it all, and now even a war to report. Sanitized statistics from Iraq have been supplanted by the “down and dirty” from Georgia. What a contrast from the sanctimonious chatter and “hard facts” about WMD from the Oval Office.

We view interviews with Georgians whose homes have been destroyed, whose family members have been killed, but TV screens remain silent about the similar experiences of Iraqis. Curiously, Georgians don’t seem to be shooting at their occupiers as the Iraqis have. McCain claims to see the light at the end of the tunnel and swears to bask in it, even it if takes 95 more years.

A stalwart infantry person in her party’s war policies, Sen. Collins is now off to sea. Promises of a resurrected Navy project at BIW is now the vote-magnet dangled before the Maine electorate, but will the promise outlast the election? Three years after Katrina, New Orleans remains unrebuilt. Collins’ mentor – the Israel lobby’s Sen. Lieberman – claims preemptive war is as American as apple pie.

Without the draft, the young men marched off to war are usually those with the fewest alternatives. Veterans organizations focus on displaying the flag, but seem little concerned that, when the remains of their fallen comrades are hustled back to America, their coffins – without flags – cannot be shown on TV by order of the Bush government. Move over Alice, Condoleezza’s our guide to Wonderland.

Stanley Harrison

Sedgwick

Collins running from GOP