Bush's Final 1,000 Days

Today's must-read -- if I might be permitted a post overflowing with filial adulation -- comes in the op-ed section of The Washington Post.

There, noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (himself an occasional HuffPo contributor and, of yeah, my father) looks ahead to the last 1,000 days of the Bush presidency, worrying about the prospect of another Bush preventive war.

Not surprisingly, he takes the long view on the issue of preventive war:

The issue of preventive war as a presidential prerogative is hardly new. In February 1848 Rep. Abraham Lincoln explained his opposition to the Mexican War: "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.' "

Find the full article here.

(Dad has been all over different Posts over the last couple days, making the New York Post's Page Six column on Sunday, also relating to the final Bush thousand days.)

Speaking of the calendar, however, he neglects one crucial item, though it's not political (unless we're talking about family politics).

Today might mark 1,000 days left until we're Bush-less, but it also marks a far more important (at least where I'm sitting -- in my folks' house) anniversary: that of the birth of Dad's wife, my mother.

So: Happy Birthday, Mom!