ONE MORE FROM THE RALPH FILE: Ralph here says:

The sad explanation seems to be that this oilman's administration cannot see beyond the lure of oil deals, past cozy historical relationships between American dynasties and the Saudi dynasty, or past the traditional wisdom that has served to protect only degenerate Saudi princes, not the American people.

D'ya think whoever's running against Bush next time could get a lot of mileage on an anti-Saudi angle? It's not like Bush is going to disassociate himself from them. I can't be the first person to mention this--I probably missed it during my non-blogging period. But it seems like a real big weak point for Dubya, unless the Saudis are entrenched in both parties or just in official Washington and their parties are too neat for people to want to cheese them off. Not that that's a good reason--but I'm trying to think like a politico.