OSAMA BIN HIDIN

Bush announced yesterday that he was “confident” Prince of Terror Osama Bin Laden would be captured.

In separate news, a videotape, also released yesterday, shows Bush saying how confident he was that all necessary emergency resources were in place prior to Hurricane Katrina's devastating landfall.

And then there was Bush's speech prior to the invasion of Iraq during which he expressed confidence that Saddam Hussein was harboring a deadly cache of WMD.

Is anyone else unmoved by Bush's patented stamp of confidence? He seems a little OVER confident if you ask me. Consider his Administration - the team of people hand-picked to assist him in leading the country. Bush has always introduced his qualified appointees with a great deal of confidence, certain they were the best people for the job. And yet consider all of the presumably smart people who've either resigned or been replaced since joining Team Bush. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. Agriculture Secretary Ann Venneman. Education Secretary Rod Paige. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. Chief Economic Adviser Stephen Friedman. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The list is long and storied.

I do not think it would not be a stretch to say that a lot of these people were probably more qualified to do their jobs than Bush is to do his - and, for one reason or another, they all either resigned or were replaced! As Randy Jackson would say, "I'm just not feeling the confidence, dog."

So when Bush says he's "confident" we're going to get Osama, I have to wonder if that's code for: "We're sending Vice President Cheney on a quail hunting trip to Pakistan."

Because, in a manner of speaking, that's probably our best shot.