Billmon: Gin Rummy

People often think satire is easy, but it's really not -- as any long-time reader of Whiskey Bar can tell by the number of attempted gags that have fallen flat and landed with a dull thud on the bottom of my home page.

You keep throwing them up and hoping they'll stick, but inside you accept the fact that most of them won't. As an aspiring comedy writer, I know that if I can get a good laugh with one in ten jokes, I'm doing pretty good.

Which is why it really frosts my shorts when a fossilized old bureaucrat like Donald Rumsfeld pops up in Baghdad and delivers -- seemingly without effort -- howlers like this one:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a surprise visit to Iraq, warned the country's new interim leaders on Tuesday against political purges and cronyism that could spark "lack of confidence or corruption in government."

Cronyism. Lack of confidence or corruption in goverment. From Donald Rumsfeld. Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration. Totally deadpan, too. Not a hint of a smile. And with perfect timing.