Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…

Starring:

• Colin Powell as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith
• Madeleine Albright as Sgt. Bosco “Bad Attitude” Baracas
• Alexander “I’m In Charge Here” Haig as Capt. HM “Howling Mad” Murdock
• Robert McNamara as Lt. Templeton “Face” Peck

I could hardly believe it this morning when I heard it on National Public Radio. The latest in this month’s continuing PR blitzkrieg, former Cabinet members from several different Democratic and Republican administrations were in a meeting at the White House with Bush and the Scooterless Gang. Meanwhile, about a hundred hundred and thirty more Iraqis died in suicide bombings, and just now at the Pentagon press conference, we learn that successful elections certainly hurt Al Qaeda in Iraq.

That is, of course, if Al Qaeda is actually IN Iraq, and not just taking credit through its connections with Zarqawhi.

Okay, okay, this is what it really looked like:

Among those at the meeting Thursday were several former Clinton administration officials: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and defense secretaries William Cohen and William Perry. Perry helped develop Sen. John Kerry’s foreign policy positions during the Massachusetts Democrat’s campaign against Bush last year.
The others from previous Democratic administrations were Harold Brown, defense secretary under former President Carter, and Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era Pentagon chief under presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Those from Republican administrations were Colin Powell, Rice’s predecessor under Bush; former secretaries of state James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig and George Shultz; and former defense secretaries Frank Carlucci, James Schlesinger and Melvin Laird.

Hee hee hee! See how Maddie Albright is looking off to her left? I bet she doesn’t like what they’ve done to the place. She had pretty tart words for Our Leader:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 – Colin L. Powell said nothing – a silence that spoke volumes to many in the White House on Thursday morning.

His predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright, a bit stirred up after hearing an exceedingly upbeat 40-minute briefing to 13 former secretaries of state and defense about how well things are going in Iraq, asked President Bush whether, with the war “taking up all the energy” of his foreign policy team, he had let the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea spin out of control and allowed Latin America and China policy suffer by neglect.

“I can’t let this comment stand,” Mr. Bush shot back, telling Ms. Albright and the rare assembly of her colleagues, who reached back to the Kennedy White House, that his administration “can do more than one thing at a time.” The Bush administration, he insisted, had “the best relations of any country with Japan, China and Korea,” and had active programs to make alliances around the world.

Boy, that guy just never goes off script. How does he do it? Cochlear iPod? I predict that “cannot/will not let (it) stand” will be the scriptlet of the month on countless blogs and talkers. Meanwhile, good for you, Maddie! Kudos for counting a little W coup.

Now, if only I had the wherewithal to do a little Photoshopping…maybe later.