He's the "dean," whether or not it is right.

IN THE WEEKS leading up to President Obama's high-risk decision for a surge in Afghanistan, we got a glimpse of the state of the national media from the "dean" of the Washington press corps, David Broder. Impatient for a decision by the president, the pater familias of pundits huffed:

"Given the reality, the urgent necessity is to make a decision - whether or not it is right."

That one should end up in Bartlett's - whether or not it is wrong.