A young Dutch subscriber to the Silverfoxes Club E-mail List posted a message to the list the other day from his home in The Netherlands expressing a certain concern which occupies the minds of many. He wrote:

"I can't help it anymore and wanted to ask...for several... weeks...now: Since most of you are Americans, how do feel having George Bush Jr. as your president?...I...feel worried about (him) being the president of the US. I don't know why I am sharing all these thoughts with you, but I have the strong feeling that he will cause a lot of trouble."

We have generally been avoiding political discussion on the list lately except for one or two jokes and political cartoons and general comments. Few members have even attempted to post on the subject of the ruling Republican Party and its White House occupant. During the presidential campaign last fall, I had to cut all political threads because emotions were running so high the list was on the brink of becoming a war zone.

My responsibility as listmaster is to see that doesn't happen. It was a prudent decision on my part because the post-election battle for Florida's electoral votes would surely have pushed us over the brink had I permitted talk of it on the list. At least two subscribers left the list in a rage over my rejection of their postings in the Approval Queue at Queernet.Org---the group which processes and distributes, with amazing efficiency and speed, the e-mails comprising our list. And the service is free!

What those self-ejected members perhaps failed to realize was that I was happy to see them go. People of that argumentative disposition, who then directed their acrimony toward me after the rejections by writing me private e-mails bristling with hatred, are no asset to a harmonious group of men. I call them flame-throwers. If they don't burn you now, they will later, so bye-bye, farewell, and stay gone is my parting salutation to such types.

No answers were forthcoming on the Hollander's question about how we Americans on the list feel about the presidency of the junior Bush, whom I think of now as "43" after reading a Washington column which revealed that the White House staff speak of Bush Senior as "41" (for forty-first President of the United States) and of Bush Junior as"43" for the obvious reason that he is the forty-third.

One comment did issue from London, though, in a posting from a charming young Englishman with a perky sense of humor who razzed the Nederlander in a jocular way about worrying over US politics on a Saturday night when it would be better to go out drinking with him, to which I added, "or better still, a handsome silverfox!"

None of us wondered how the Englishman and the Hollander (Der Fliegende Höllander, "The Flying Dutchman"?) would get together to do which town, London or Amsterdam, on such short notice. Anything is possible in cyberspace, and there's always CUSeeMe!

I have been following the ins and outs of the Bush Administration closely since the President's assumption of power, or ought I to say the VICE President's assumption of power? I have been reading of late that 43 likes to spend weekends at Camp David relatively undisturbed, when he can't get down to the ranch in Texas. Lucky man! He's lucky because he has a devoted backup in Dick Cheney who is more than willing to assume the mantle of power when 43 is not around or, according to some sources, even if he is.

Bill Press, co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" and "Spin Room," wrote in a recent column headlined "Bush Administration Depends on Cheney Recovery" (while the veep was in hospital with a heart problem): "Never in modern times has a vice president assumed so much responsibility or exercised so much power. In the last eight years, we grew used to seeing Al Gore sitting stiffly alongside of Bill Clinton while the president ran the meetings. This time, it's the other way around: Dick Cheney runs the meetings while George Bush sits idly alongside him---if he's even in the room at all."

In the same vein, Marianne Means, columnist for the Hearst Newspapers, has written in a column entitled "The Vice Presidency Examined": "In the long sweep of history, no mortal is indispensable, and that includes presidents and vice presidents. But Cheney comes close to being absolutely essential in the administration of President Bush. In only a few months, the veep has already become the stuff of political legend---exercising more influence on public policy than any of his predecessors. He is widely viewed as filling a prime minister's role with an unlimited portfolio to exercise his judgment on any topic from defense issues to budget priorities."

Democratic strategist Mark Siegal remarked on CNN's "Spin Room": "We Americans have suddenly adopted the British system of government: a working leader with a popular figurehead. And no doubt who's playing which role. Dick Cheney's the prime minister. George Bush is Queen Elizabeth."

Hmmm. We have already discussed on the list King James VI and I's commission of the so-called King James Version of the Bible, in terms of "Queen" James. Now must we begin to speak of "Queen" George?

So in deep tones I say to our young friend in The Netherlands, trying to sound as reassuringly macho as the late John Wayne: "Rest easy, son. Junior Bush is not alone on the bridge of the American ship of state."

Actually, it appears that he's not even the real captain after all---although we see him strutting around in the captain's hat. No, a seasoned veteran of the political wars (and former Secretary of Defense during Desert Storm) has assumed command and, according to Bill Press, "is responsible for coordinating the administration's foreign policy and defense teams, deciding differences among Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice."

Therefore, if trouble comes, please don't blame it on "Queen" George!

THE END