The sad old moribund GOP once chided Democrats for p/maternalism, and they were right as all hell. Well, this ain't your father's/mother's GOP any more.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a"10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent.

Card's remark, criticized later by Democrat John F. Kerry's campaign as" condescending," came in a speech to Republican delegates from Maine and Massachusetts that was threaded with references to Bush's role as protector of the country. Republicans have sounded that theme repeatedly at the GOP convention as they discuss the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.

"It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said."I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children."

As if this remark needed any mockery, recall that boy George's bizarre relationship with the parental units would give both Freud and Turgenev fits.