John Grisham's Choice Words for President Bush

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Crocodile Tears

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley says Republican indignation over the MoveOn.org ad calling General David Petraeus "General Betray Us" is — in his words — "mock outrage."

Kinsley writes in Time Magazine that the ad can be interpreted as questioning the general's honesty — not his patriotism. But kinsley says that the negative reaction to the ad has been phony and writes, "The war's backers are obviously delighted to have this ad from which they can make an issue."

He adds, "When so many people are clamoring for a chance to swoon that they each have to take a number and when the landscape is so littered with folks lying prostrate and pretending to be dead that it starts to look like the end of a Civil War battle re-enactment, this isn't spontaneous mass outrage. This is choreography."

The Rainmaker

Best-selling author John Grisham is sounding off about the president, his administration and the war. Grisham is hosting an event for Hillary Clinton Sunday near his Virginia home.

He tells the Des Moines register, "The war is an immoral abomination that we'll pay for for decades to come. We're paying for it now at the rate of 100 kids a month while Bush plays politics with it."

And, of the president and his administration, "I've always thought that they were bad people with evil intent... I can't stand those people and their incompetence is astounding."

Critics' Choice

The Department of Health and Human Service's employee newsletter recently suggested that workers looking for new cars consider 12 models rated tops in fuel efficiency by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. The list included Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas — but no American models.

The Detroit Free Press reports that when Michigan's congressional delegation found out, they got mad — not at Detroit, for failing to make fuel efficient vehicles, but at HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, for steering employees toward certain brands of cars.

An agency spokesman says the newsletter was just trying to relay information and pointed out that some American models were recommended in a section about larger vehicles such as pickups, vans and SUVs.

Must See TV?

A truck driver in Kent, England is suing the British government over its insistence that secondary school students be shown Al Gore's global warming movie, "An Inconvenient Truth."

The Daily Telegraph reports Stewart dimmock — who is also serves as a school governor — says he is determined to prevent his children from being subjected to political spin in the classroom. And he says British law forbids, "the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school." It also requires students be "offered a balanced presentation of opposing views."

The government has responded by saying it has asked teachers to offer balance to parts of the Gore movie where there is room for political debate and alternative views to claims not backed by undisputed scientific consensus.

— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.