I was going to write about this last May, but now, as it turns out, it's a good thing I waited. It's about television, The West Wing specifically.

I used to watch that show, for the first season and a half it was terrific. You see, it was less about President Martin Sheen and more about the outer office. Ya, you know that. But it was really good, made the man behind the office more important, more mystical, like when we saw him, we were lucky. Which is kinda the way it is when you're dealing with the most powerful man in television...err, I mean the political stage.

Well, I tuned out about the time Dubya took office for real. It seemed, well, too much like fantasy having a guy like Sheen on TV when Georgie Jr. was the real deal. And really, they just all talked way too fast and we saw too much of Martin and it became really predictable.

But I tuned in again at the end of last season because I was curious how they were dealing with the little scuffle in Iraq. I mean, Dubya was WAY popular then, don't you know. So how do they keep the little TV show relevant?

And that's when they copped out -- BIG TIME! A wave of right wing hawkism was sweeping the nation, and here's socialist President Sheen tilting at windmills (or was he set to jump the shark?) on TV. Rather than making a stand right to the end, producer Anson Williams...err, I mean Aaron Sorkin, compromised everything. They let Sheen, the dreamer, off the hook by having him step down, and appeased the American hawks by replacing him with a fat, right-wing bomb-happy John Goodman. Man, it was so obvious at the time!! It really steamed me. But I didn't say so then.

And now, it's laughable. The mood of the country has turned over the summer. Dubya ain't so popular and the Americans are asking a lot of questions about why he went into Iraq like he did. Yet here's the West Wing, with its right wing slant now, and it's comical. It's like an old TV show about the Cold War. It's cliché. The left-wingers can rail and moan and the right-wingers are cartoon characters. If they had only stuck to their doves (so to speak) the show would still be relevant.

But they didn't. And they can't be. Because they tape months in advance. And they look dumb. No wonder people want reality TV. And Pigdump. If we do say so ourselves.

Thanks and good luck.