Jimmy Breslin

And the Bush who cried "wolf."

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

There once was a shepherd boy who sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. He took a great breath and sang out: "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is threatening the sheep!"

The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill they found no wolf. The boy laughed to himself at the sight.

"Don't cry 'wolf,'" said the villagers, "when there's no wolf." They went down the hill.

Later, the boy sang out again, "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is threatening the sheep!" He watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.

When the villagers saw no wolf, they sternly said, "Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don't cry 'wolf' when there is NO wolf."

The boy just watched them go down the hill again.

Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, the boy leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Wolf! Wolf!"

But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.

The wolf, having no cause to fear, lacerated the sheep and caused the survivors to scatter. At sunset, everybody wondered why the shepherd hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.

"There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, 'Wolf!' Why didn't you come?"

And a wise old man of the village said:

"A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth."

"The Boy That Cried Wolf" was so long ago that George Bush forgets it.

For here on Monday he was reading a second fable.

"Osama is coming!" he announced. Suddenly, the word "terror" ran the great city. Terrorism, terrorists, terrorist task force, anti-terrorist task force. Thomas Ridge, Bush's Homeland Security fake, said that for sure he was afraid they were coming. He had new intelligence that was horrifying:

Kerry could have been been doing the least bit better in polls.

Every time something like that happens, Bush stumbles or a 9/11 report comes out to make him look bad, he cries "terrorist." He has done this for over two years now.

This time, a great bin Laden target in New York was the Citigroup Center on Lexington Avenue. You could be incinerated if Osama gets at this building!

Right away in the morning, George Bush's wife and daughters rushed up from Washington to stand bravely in the front of all those cameras. It was not for the election. They truly wanted to stand with New Yorkers and be incinerated, the same as anybody else.

It probably was the one most fraudulent act we have had since the World Trade Center bombing, and at that time, Bush himself got up on a destroyed fire engine and pretended to be tough. While not saying that he froze during the attack.

Mmmmm, that's good writing.

November 2 is less than three months away. You know what to do.

For the record, I think we'd all be better off if we pondered Aesop once in a while.