Ever hear of epanalepsis?  Neither has Blawgletter — at least until the revelation, this Monday, that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee "increased" the President’s "confidence in his ability to do the job." 

The epanaleptic phenomenon sprang to mind because Blawgletter didn’t rightly know what "the king is dead — long live the king!" meant.  A Google search resolved the matter, enlightening Blawgletter that its utterance marks the succession of monarch B immediately after the monarch A’s decease.

So it doesn’t apply literally to the situation of Mr. Gonzales — or Fredo, as the President nicknamed him.  And yet.  Didn’t Fredo Corleone take a bullet to the back of the head after endangering the career of his boss (and brother) Michael?  And didn’t his boss love but despise him?

Same deal.  Only this Fredo doesn’t realize that he’s already bled out.  You know, like Bruce Willis in that "I see dead people" movie? 

So long live Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty!  Or perhaps his deputy.

Barry Barnett

We promise to use only words that we don’t have to look up in our next post.