On this morning's edition of Meet The Press, Tim Russert had Ambassador Paul Bremer on the show. He read Bremer a passage criticizing his time in Iraq by the Inspector General of something or other, and asked for Bremer's response.

First thing Bremer said: "Let me answer that."

Paul? Paul? That was surplus wordage right there. We didn't need that. We asked you the question. We EXPECT you will answer that. It's appropriate to say "Let me answer that" when, say, some guy is accusing you of impregnating his sister and has pulled back his fist to punch you. (You'll want to evaluate if you have a good answer, of course.) But no one was trying to keep you from answering that. We expected you to answer that. You'd only have had to ask permission if you were going to do something unexpected. Like, "Tim, you've just accused me of mismanaging millions of dollars in my handling of Iraq, and I am deeply offended you think the Bush administration could mismanage anything. Now, let me dance a jig." That would have been unexpected. Your answering it was not unexpected and, hence, did not require our permission.

Sheesh. Do I have to spend my time explaining everything to Republicans?