Rappin' with the Rev

by Howard Altman

Maybe it’s the heat.

Maybe it’s the aftereffect of too many bourbons at the National Constitution Center opening shindig. Maybe I’m just giddy thinking about my son playing second base on the all-star team.

Whatever the reason, there I am, sitting in my kitchen, watching Face the Nation and finding myself agreeing with Rev. Al, the Castro-loving, Brawley-believing gadfly now seeking the nation's highest office.

"For the president to say, 'Bring it on,' almost like daring and provoking Iraqis to kill American soldiers," Sharpton says, "he sounds more like a gang leader in South Central L.A. than one that is trying to institute a policy of democracy and reconstruction in the world."

To put Bush's comment in its full context, he didn't actually say, "Bring it on." He said, "Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice. There are some who feel like that if they attack us, that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about. If that's the case, my answer is, 'Bring 'em on.' We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

Despite protestations from people like Doug Patton -- a columnist for GOPUSA.com, who writes that those opposed to Bush are "erudite snobs of the privileged left, who sip their cocktails at their east and west coast parties and lament the loss of civility toward America's enemies" -- the full context does nothing to diminish Rev. Al's take.

Sure, the troops on the front line want to hear that their commander is behind them. But trash talk, translated into Arabic, only fans flames we should be dousing.

We don't win friends and influence people by being patsies, but we don't do it by being bullies, either. Especially not by being ignorant bullies who have no real sense of what is going on in the world. People who felt they had to lie to us -- tell us that Iraq was buying uranium when they knew it was not the case, according to The Washington Post -- in order to sell us this war.

As CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer and Washington Post reporter Dan Balz quiz Sharpton, he makes a point of saying he is in South Central.

Which reminds me of my favorite rappers, Cypress Hill, which makes me drop a little science, in honor of it all.

My name is Georgie B, killer MC

Leader of the land of the brave and the free

Think you're tough motherfucker, well just you wait and see

Gonna fuck you up like Saddam Hussein-eee

Bring 'em on, motherfucker

Bring the bullets and the bombs

Bring 'em on motherfucker

Cuz we believe in psalms

Don't be hidin' in the desert

Don't be hidin' in the dirt

Don't be hidin' under momma's

Big black burqa skirt

Come out and fight, motherfucker

Fight just like a man

Cuz we'll really fuck you over

Then we'll fuck up Iran.

This isn't about manners or squeamishness or whining about "peace in our time."

Bush can talk like a gangsta if he wants. And outgoing Centcom Commander Tommy Franks can make like 50 Cent, too. But the bottom line is this.

No Bush children are on the front lines.

No Cheney or Rumsfeld offspring either. No progeny of Attorney General Ashcroft. No seeds of Powell or Condy Rice.

The chicken hawks have no such familial investment in the killing fields of Mesopotamia.

Since Bush made his statement, at least three more American soldiers have died, and at least eight others have been wounded. Those numbers, tragically, will only rise. And the blood will spill on the other side as well.

I speak as a father, who wants nobody's children to die.

The commander is behind his troops all right.

Usually more than 6,000 miles behind. Surrounded by a large personal guard.

Just like a kingpin.

I am going to hate myself in the morning for saying this.

Rev. Al is right.