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the zeitgeist checklist: What Washington is talking about.

Zeitgeist Checklist: Barack Obama, Presidential ExplorerWhat Washington is talking about this week.

By Michael Grunwald
Posted Saturday, Jan. 20, 2007, at 7:07 AM ET

1. Last week: 1 Weeks on list: 30 [SAME]

Talk About a Botched Execution!
Iraq. Critics express outrage over another botched execution, as Saddam Hussein's half-brother is decapitated by his noose. How is that a botched execution? If Hussein's half-brother had expressed outrage, that would've been a botched execution. Still, President Bush says the incident shows that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government "still has some maturation to do." Maliki vows that someday his government will be mature enough to blunder into a foreign quagmire to prove he's tougher than his dad.

2. New This Week! [UP ARROW]

We'll All Be Grateful in January 2009
White House. In an interview Wednesday night on PBS' NewsHour, Bush says average Americans have made sacrifices during the war because they "sacrifice peace of mind" when they watch TV. Especially Americans who watched NewsHour on Wednesday night. Bush also suggests that Iraqis aren't grateful enough to Americans. That's not a joke. He really said that.

3. New This Week! [UP ARROW]

Edna Doesn't Balance Her Budget, Either
Surveillance. The Bush administration finally agrees to stop its warrantless wiretapping of Americans but defends its new program to snoop around their financial records. Vice President Cheney says the program is vital to national security and adds that Edna J. Fleischman of Grand Forks, N.D., really didn't have to pay so much for that muffler.

4. Last week: 8 Weeks on list: 11 [UP ARROW]

White House Dogcatcher? White House Brie-Taster?
2008. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., announces that he's forming a presidential exploratory committee but confuses supporters by vowing "to be the best Joe Biden I can be." And Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., says he's considering another run for the White House. That's not a joke, either. Well, it is, but he did say it.

5. New This Week [UP ARROW]

How Do You Say "Baba Booey" in Mandarin?
Space. China shoots down a satellite with a ground-based missile, triggering protests from rival nations that fear a new space-based arms race and from a billion Chinese who can no longer listen to Howard Stern.

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Michael Grunwald, a staff reporter for the Washington Post, is the author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.
Illustrations by Vivian Selbo.
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