Yesterday at a congressional hearing on the Iraq intelligence failures, our Secretary of State took some time out of his testimony to scold a staffer for shaking his head at Powell's remarks:
- "Are you shaking your head for something, young man, back there?" Powell asked. "Are you part of these proceedings?. . . I seldom come to a meeting where I am talking to a congressman and I have people aligned behind you giving editorial comment by head shakes."
Well, it's better than the jerking-off gesture that Kennedy used during the Clarence Thomas hearings. But it wasn't the only bit of lip that Powell had to put up with. At one point in the hearing, Rep. Sherrod Brown made a casual reference to how Bush "may have been AWOL" during the Vietnam War. Responded Powell: "Mr. Brown, let's not go there."
To which Brown sniffed, "Talk to the hand,"only to be bested by Powell's retort, "Mmmm-mmm, I know I didn't hear you say that, girlfriend." Powell then snapped his fingers while waving his hand, picked up his purse, and left the room.
