It could be that the President's colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007 amount to the bulk of all the historic records of all such invasions of an executive's privileged parts since the beginning of the Republic. One could assume that if Franklin Roosevelt was reluctant put his paralysis on public display, surely no leader of the Western world would want to stir much chit chat about some chap shoving a yard of garden hose into one's nether regions to poke around. C'mon, if the notion of state secrets has any usefulness, it must surely include protecting the American people from imagining Dubya in the throes of the procedure.

   Yet there it was. The White House press office announcing the day before that the colonoscopy was scheduled, how long it would take and that Veep Dick would be in charge. And this is a guy who waited 24 hours to announce that he had shot his friend in the face.