I saw Ron Suskind speak last night at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. Suskind is the author of The Price of Loyalty with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was ousted by the Bushies for being too straight an arrow; Suskind also wrote that startling New York Times Magazine piece last fall about the "faith-based presidency" which led to the now-infamous quote from an administration official dissing those of us in "the reality-based community."

Suskind provided an interesting addendum to that quote, which didn't make it into the Times article. Apparently the White House official also suggested that thirty years from now, people like Suskind were going to be wearing tweed jackets, teaching a college history course -- but if they were nice to the visionaries in the administration, maybe the latter would come to speak in their class sometime. Talk about chutzpah!

One thing struck me as Suskind was telling his tales, which has occurred to me before -- and that is the irony of millions of honest, well-meaning (if misinformed) Americans voting for such a shockingly vicious, nasty, literally mafia-esque gang of thugs. If they only understood the cold, brass-knuckles culture of revenge they were supporting, many of these "moral" voters would be repulsed.

After his talk, I was able to thank Suskind for introducing the phrase "reality-based community" into the public discourse. He was very gracious.