This, from nationally syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer, who revealed not long ago that she had considered Donald Rumsfeld a friend--until the Iraq war. (Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2004).

"When this unusual Republican administration was struggling to come to power four years ago, one of the major pluses for the electorate, surely for me, was that this group had more Washington and international experience than virtually any new administration in history: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell. Among them and others, they supposedly knew the world like the back of their hands and would deal with it with expertise, sophistication and elan.

As it turned out, none of these men could even read a page in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica that might have alerted them to how Iraqis have behaved throughout history; they couldn't figure out where those much touted weapons of mass destruction were, or weren't, and their vast 'experience,' undiluted by modesty and inflamed with hubris, did not lend them any parlor manners with other governments in the world nor facility in husbanding the nation's resources in order to lead the world."

Already, the Republicans are questioning John Edwards experience, or lack thereof.

Geyer's thoughts might be a good point of departure for a discussion on the value of experience.

Joe B.