FRIDAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE

Well, this hasn't been what you would call an ordinary week off.

There I am last Wednesday taking a hike in the desert outside of Tucson, Arizona. I come back to the room and decide to check the email. There's a message from the White House marked "urgent." Well ... let me tell ya ... you're gonna want to open that message, and so I did.

OK ... so this might be such a big deal for some folks out there, but it sure got my attention. The President was inviting me and a few other radio talk show hosts to meet with him in the Oval Office on Friday for an off-the-record conversation.

The first problem was clothes. I don't generally take a suit on my summer vacation, and it might have looked a bit odd for me to show up at the White House wearing hiking shorts and a t-shirt reading "I'm a pathological flyer." So it was off to Tucson to buy a suit, shirt, tie, shoes, socks and a belt.

May I drop in a plug here for the Men's Warehouse on River Road in Tucson? Karen took me under her wing and I walked out in one hour with a fully altered suit and everything else I needed. No ... I didn't tell her I was going to the White House. I just said I needed it for an unexpected meeting ... and she came through.

Getting there was another matter. I finally arranged flights out of Phoenix. So it was in the car at 8:30 on Thursday morning. Arrive at the Phoenix airport at 11:00. Fly Northwest to Memphis, then Reagan airport in DC. A cab ride to the hotel, and I'm sacked in by 10:00 Thursday night.

The next morning I stay in the room and devour the Washington Post and the New York Times. This in a vain attempt to try to appear halfway intelligent in the meeting to come.

At 11:30 I arrive at the NW guard gate to the White House. Hannity is right behind me. the President is in the process of holding a press conference in the Rose Garden. We clear security and wander on our own to the West Wing. Inside the lobby we find Mike Gallagher and Michael Medved. Laura Ingraham arrives a few minutes later and we wait for our meeting to begin.

At about 12:30 we're moved into the Roosevelt Room to await the president. I wander around and notice two displays on the wall. One was the Medal of Honor won by Theodore Roosevelt, the other was his Nobel Peace Prize.

After about 20 minutes, at 12:50, the door opens and we're ushered across the hallway into the Oval Office. We're joined there by Press Secretary Tony Snow, and the meeting begins.

The ground rules were simple. We were off the record. We cannot quote the president on anything that was said during the next 90 minutes. The subject matter ranged through domestic policy, immigration, the war on terror, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Jordan. President Bush talked of the leaders of countries ranging from Great Britain to China to Japan to Iran. I'll assure you, there were some great moments there.

Midway though our talk we were surprised by a bark and scratching at the door to the Oval Office patio. Beasley wanted in. Scottish Terrier, I think.

I came away from the meeting with some clear impressions. President Bush is a man of deep religions faith, and strongly believes that anyone who truly believes in God will also have a burning desire to live free. He's absolutely convinced that we will prevail in Iraq and in the war against Islamic fascism, though the job will be arduous.

I had many impressions of the President and of the Oval Office. During the flight back to Phoenix on Friday evening I pulled out a notepad and wrote everything I could remember about the entire experience. Those will share with you Wednesday when I'm back on live.

Did I say Wednesday? Why golly, I sure did! I've extended my vacation to Arizona by two days so that I could complete the project I came here to do. I'll be coming home with one nice suit of clothes and some incredible experiences to share.

NOW .. IS ISLAM A PEACEFUL RELIGION

Perhaps it would be instructive to look at what is happening to Pope Benedict over the past few days for an answer.

First ... just what did the Pope do? You can read the Pope's entire speech by clicking on this link. If' your not into reading Pope's speeches, I'll lift out the part that has started all of this controversy.

Pope Benedict moves into the area of his speech that has sparked the controversy with this paragraph:

"I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on-- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara-- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian."

Pope Benedict then goes on to quote one particular. This is something the Byzantine emperor said to the Persian on the subject of Islam and jihad, or holy war.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Now remember ... these were not the words of the Pope. These were the words of some emperor over 600 years ago. The emperor evidently thought that Islam was a violent religion, and that it was the commands of Mohammed that made it so.

So ... how do Muslims react to the Pope's revelation that a Byzantine emperor 600 years ago thought that Islam was a violent religion? Why, with violence, of course? Muslims murder a nun in Somalia. They burn churches in Gaza, and they go on their grand marches and demonstrations reminiscent of the violence they spread after that Danish cartoon mess.

And so what is the inescapable conclusion that we're left with? Islam is a violent religion. Don't take Empereor Paleologus' word for it ... just watch Muslims!

Is it just me, or does it make sense to you that if Muslims didn't want the rest of the world to consider Islam a violent religion, they wouldn't get so violent every time someone say's they're violent? Come on, folks! How hard is all this?

OK ... I have one full day of vacation left. I'm going on a hike. Here's some stuff from the staff. Staff stuff. I like the sound of that.

SKERRY ACCUSES BUSH ON BIN LADEN

Poor John Kerry. After being blown out in the last presidential election, this kept man has been seeking relevance. It hasn't been easy. After all, once he leaves the Senate, he'll join Michael Dukakis in the annals of Massachusetts' political oblivion. At least he won't have to worry about money with his keeper in tow.

So every once in awhile, The Poodle decides to attack President Bush. His latest salvo comes in the form of an accusation that George W. Bush has abandoned the search for Osama Bin Laden. Kerry said last Friday that Bush tried to shut down the CIA unit that was tasked with finding Bin Laden. The president says the hunt will continue until Osama is captured. So who is right? Does it really matter?

But you see, John Kerry is and always has been a flip-flopper at heart. Wasn't it the Democrats who downplayed the killing of Iraq's Al-Qaeda henchman Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi? After saying for years there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq, they told us Zarqawi was just one man...and that the insurgency would live on without him. As a matter of fact, the Democratic response to that bombing closely resembled that of Al-Qaeda's, but I digress.

So isn't it the same with Osama Bin Laden? Isn't he just one man...hiding in the mountains, cut off from the rest of the world and the leadership of Al-Qaeda? Won't capturing him just make more peace-loving Muslims mad at us? Now watch...if Bin Laden is ever captured...there will be Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Kerry and the rest, all telling us that Bin Laden is just one person and that Bush has made the world a more dangerous place.

John Kerry's term in the Senate is up in 2009. Then it's off to the back of a Trivial Pursuit card and into oblivion.

HILLARY IS RIGHT FOR ONCE

Regarding the "Death of a President" movie... It is despicable and should be banned from being shown in the U.S. It disgusts me, but the cost of freedom is allowing this sort of expression.

Time to give The Hildabeast a little credit on this one. You may not have heard, but a movie has been produced about the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush. The film uses news footage of a visit Bush made to Chicago and uses special effects to actually stage the "assassination." The movie was made by a British director and has been winning awards at film festivals. At first, it was dismissed as a piece of anti-American garbage.

But then a U.S. distributor picked up the movie, ensuring it will run in theaters here. This is where it gets a little interesting. This whole idea of killing the president is something that we've heard rumblings of on the Left in this country. For instance, anti-war nutcase Cindy Sheehan said she wished she could go back in time and kill an infant George W. Bush. So now we have this movie about Bush's assassination. Which begs the question...how will Democrats react to it?

Will they condemn it? Agree with it? Quietly ignore it? Well today we have our answer, straight from Hillary Clinton. She was asked about it over the weekend and her response left no question about where she stands on the issue. Asked what she thought about the film, Mrs. Clinton had this to say: "I think it's despicable. I think it's absolutely outrageous. That anyone would even attempt to profit on such a horrible scenario makes me sick." How about that.

So there you go...Hillary gets something right. Will the rest of the Democratic leadership follow?

THIS WAR WITH IRAN BUSINESS

Time magazine has as their cover story this week "What War With Iran Would Look Like." The scenario seems to be that the United States will run out of patience with Iran and take military action against the Al-Qaeda-supporting regime's nuclear facilities. This would no doubt be done unilaterally, with the toothless U.N. Security Council not even being able to agree on sanction.

So what would war with Iran look like? It would most likely be done with just air strikes. This isn't rocket science...we know where their nuclear plants are. It's not a big secret. We go, we bomb them, put them out of business and that is that. The solution to the Iranian nuclear problem is the same today as it was 5 or 6 years ago. We deal with it the way Israel dealt with Iraq's nuclear reactor a long time ago: simply blow it up.

But will we? Probably not. For some reason, the Bush Administration is taking the diplomatic route on this one. Sensing weakness, Iran is playing games. They say they're willing to negotiate over their program, but they're really not. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Somethingoranother, knows how to play the game of looking reasonable to the rest of the world while playing us for fools. He knows that most of the U.N. and most of Europe hate George W. Bush and the United States as much as he does.

So while it makes for an interesting magazine cover, we probably won't be going to war with Iran anytime soon. And that's too bad. Because once Iran has a nuclear bomb, there's no going back.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Here is yet another in our long running series of redneck mailboxes. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

For those who are listening to the Best Of today, here is the Nuze from that day.

Pat Buchanan says President Bush should be impeached, but not over the war in Iraq. He says Bush has committed an impeachable offense when it comes to failing to defend the country against the illegal alien invasion.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama, one of the bright spots in the current Democratic Party, says Democrats need to take a tougher stand on national security if they hope to make any gains this fall. He also says whoever is looking toward 2008 without focusing on 2006 is making a mistake.

It's looking more and more like Al Gore may run again for the White House in 2008. Dick Morris says the contest for the nomination is shaping up to be Clinton vs. Gore, with Al rapidly gaining on Hillary.

A few months ago, it looked like Iraq was the issue around President Bush's neck that the Democrats would use to cruise to victory. But events have intervened...and the Democrats are clueless. Michael Barone brings us up to date.

Bill Kristol says Democrats have taken the bait and walked right into the trap on national security. He says the 2006 mid-term elections will be about national security, and on that issue...Bush wins every time.

Jonah Goldberg looks at the hysteria surrounding U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and wonders what all the fuss is about. He says most Americans agree with Bolton, but that hasn't stopped certain Senate Republicans from trying to run him out of the U.N.

How times have changed. Now some liberals are starting to worry that Republicans will be in power and in control forever. George Will profiles a new book by that predicts Republicans will stay in charge for the foreseeable future.

Tired of all the Fifth anniversary of 9/11 coverage? Mark Steyn isn't...but what he is tired of is how weak the coverage was. In fact, he found it "distastefully tasteful" and "wimpy." Read on to find out why.

House Majority Leader John Boehner is coming out in support of military tribunals for terrorists...just as the House is expected to bring up the issue this week. Boehner says it's time for Congress to step up and move forward with justice for terrorists.

Professor Mike Adams was denied a promotion to full professor at the University of North Carolina, so he responded by converting to radical Islam. He also threatened the university administration with jihad if they didn't reverse their decision.

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