Newsweek Editor Suggests President Bush Is Mentally Ill

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

"State of Denial"

The senior science editor at Newsweek magazine has suggested that President Bush is mentally ill — writing that he is "in a state of denial" over the Iraq war.

Sharon Begley offers as proof the president's insistence the war will succeed, despite what she calls "setback after setback." She continues: "While it's always risky to psychoanalyze a politician from afar, a few things in his past are consistent with the capacity for denial."

She offers up the fact that as a seven-year-old boy, the president tried to comfort his mother after his baby sister died of leukemia. Begley writes: "The tip-off for denial is perpetual optimism, a pathological certainty that things are going well." She also cites the fact that Mr. Bush has battled alcohol abuse, saying such people, "typically need to see the world in black and white in order to stay on the wagon."

But Begley has no formal education or training in the field of mental health that we could find. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Yale — in combined sciences.

Not Official

Following the sudden death of theReverend Jerry Falwell — an anchor on MSNBC quoted from a satirical article posted on the Web site whitehouse.org — which is described as an anti-Bush parody site. The anchor said that Falwell's considerable influence on the current administration was backed up by his defacto role as Executive Director of Domestic and Global Policy for the White House.

After a few minutes the anchor pointed out that the official White House site is whitehouse.gov — but didn't mention that the information from the other site was false.

Memorial Day Protest

The national commander of the American Legion says John Edwards' e-mail and Web site call for supporters to denounce the Iraq war on Memorial Day "makes me sick."

Paul Morin wrote on the Legion's Web site — "Revolting is a kind word for it. It's as inappropriate as a political bumper sticker on an Arlington headstone. Edwards is hardly the first politician from either political party to exploit this day, a holiday that was consecrated with the blood of American heroes. But the e-mail makes me sick nonetheless.''

No response yet from the Edwards camp.

Alarmism Counterproductive

A British professor who studies how people react to the media says alarmist messages about global warming are counterproductive.

Professor Mike Hume — no relation to this reporter — tells the BBC that exaggerations about a catastrophic future promote apathy — and do not motivate people to change their behavior.

Speaking of doomsday claims — the World Wide Fund for Nature says the earth is just five years away from environmental chaos. The group is giving us until the year 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" — or face what it calls "dangerous climate change" — with significant impacts on the global economy.

Building an Ark

Meanwhile, environmentalists with Greenpeace are building a replica of the ark on Mount Ararat — where Noah's original model is believed to have landed. The new ark will be revealed on May 31 — as activists call on world leaders to tackle climate change in order to avoid what one calls "human misery on a scale not experienced in modern times."

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