...about this, Hank Paulson would be escorted from Washington by U.S. marshals.

In a speech at the Manhattan Institute in New York before weekend talks among leaders from the Group of 20 nations, Bush said policy makers should resist the urge to meddle too much in markets as they seek to reverse the financial and economic turmoil now engulfing the world.

"History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, but too much,'' Bush said. "Our aim should not be more government, it should be smarter government.''

Mr. Bush, I had thought you were actually going to do what you said you were going to do with the $700 billion. You did not do it; your Treasury Secretary continues to audible at the line of scrimmage. I feel like Charlie Brown -- I should have known that government would screw this up, but I wanted to believe this one time you would get it right.

I'm the idiot, not you. I have no excuse. But not again. Government failure was inevitable, and I have learned my lesson.