Singles Topping the Charts for Bush

"Don't bother, Rice replied: The president has made a decision."

Well, it's still good to know the Brits had also figured this out.

Give or Take a Few Years

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , chatting with reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, said a decision on whether to close Guantanamo would depend on President Bush. Gonzales noted, according to Reuters News Service, that soldiers captured during World War II had been held for "many, many, many, many years."

War historians might say there are a few too many "manys" in that sentence. Maybe as many as four too many.

The last German POWs left this country by July 1946, 14 months after the war ended. Italian POWs had already gone home. In both cases, many didn't want to go -- life being pretty good here -- and, we're told, the Italian authorities were not keen on a rapid return because of devastation in the home country.

The United States was the first of the great powers to release its POWs. The French, for example, held on to some of theirs until 1948, putting the Germans to work in mines, as farm workers and on projects to rebuild the country. It was, one source said, kind of a "grudge match." The Soviets, not exactly a crowd to be emulated, held on to their POWs -- the ones they didn't shoot -- for years.

It is true that some POWs, for example those who committed crimes in this country, were held longer. Some, who killed guards or other POWs, were held for years or were executed. (There's a cemetery for them, with gravestones, in Leavenworth, Kan.)

And, of course, some Germans -- Rudolf Hess , Albert Speer , members of the Waffen SS who shot prisoners -- were held for many years. But they had been adjudicated war criminals, not POWs.

The GOP Doth Protest Too Much?

It was deja vu all over again. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), decried delays over confirmation of Bush U.N. ambassador-nominee John R. Bolton by Democrats demanding internal administration documents.

Barely a year ago, Senate Republicans decried delays of Pentagon nominees by McCain, who was demanding internal documents involving the $20 billion Air Force tanker deal.