The Perfect Script

David Horsey's March 8th column is actually a continuation of his March 7th:  he wasn't quite finished with the subject.  The two, read together with their cartoons, provide a really interesting look into the way the man's mind works.  Here's a really fun part from the later column:

In my mind, it’s easy to visualize the film version of the dinner. Low lights casting a golden glow on shadowy faces as the camera moves along the table: Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator with his boyish face sinking into jowls; Saxby Chambliss, the beady-eyed, white-haired Georgian looking slightly appalled to be dining with a Kenya-born socialist; Tom Coburn, with his spiky hair, boxer’s nose and Oklahoma common sense that keeps him from pandering to the lunatic fringe of his party; all the other senators sitting tense and alert as they look toward their host. Obama would have to be seated at the head of the table with John McCain, the man he defeated for the presidency, uncomfortably placed at his right. That dramatic juxtaposition would be impossible to resist – unless McCain were in the farthest seat at the other end of the long table, still seething over his lost place in history.

Just add the expository, rapid-fire Aaron Sorkin dialogue and you'd have an instant HBO hit. ...

To be completely candid about my creative process, I should mention I had one other dinner-related cartoon in mind – a Last Supper scene with Obama at the center in Jesus’ seat, flanked by the 12 senators. Obama would say, “One of you will betray me,” and one of the senators would reply, “Only one of us?!”

The whole idea of the President taking twelve senators out to dinner on his own dime is a bit strange, although the idea of a president engaging in a charm offensive I guess isn't all that unusual.  I'm just used to the LBJ model:  twist the arm until it threatens to break.  What is unusual is the careful placement of this dinner in every major and minor news outlet.  No wonder David Horsey can't let the whole story go.  There's so much more to think about.

In any event, I guess we'll discover this week whether it was a useful tool for the president, or whether he's been stiffed once again. We might even get that Last Supper cartoon.