Rest in peace, freedom fries

It seemed like just yesteday:

DEEP-FRIED:

By now many blog aficionadoes will be familiar with the death of "freedom fries", but it's still worth memorializing. As a symbolic, almost literary device, it's hard to imagine something that could capture the arc of Bush/DeLay-era Capitol Hill more perfectly than this stunt. Back when the House cafeterias changed their menus in March 2003, House Republicans enjoyed near-total power and diplayed an arrogance to match. But a few years later, look at what's happened: The war that the French opposed has turned out to be a disaster. The initial proponent of the menu switch, North Carolina Republican Walter Jones, has since said Iraq was invaded "with no justification," and displays faces of U.S. soldiers killed in action outside his office. Meanwhile, the official enabler of the name-change, Ohio Republican Bob Ney, has since been revealed as a compatriot of Jack Abramoff and as a result may face indictment and possibly worse. Though very different tales, both the Abramoff scandal and the execution of the Iraq war are travesties of unchecked power--and the sort of hubris that led anyone to believe "freedom fries" was a funny joke in the first place. Mark the date, historians.

P.S.: A reader helpfully notes a desert-island-like location yet to be touched by history!

--Michael Crowley

via The New Republic