The New John Wayne

Every so often an in-your-face catchphrase shows up that captures a sense of guts and bravado that Americans admire. A hundred and fifty years ago, it was Farragut's "damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!" Fifty years ago, it was McAuliffe's "nuts!" To those raised, like me, on movies and TV, it was Rooster Cogburn's "fill your hands, you sonofabitch," Dirty Harry's "do you feel lucky, punk?" or Mal Johnson's "I don't want to kill you and you don't want to be dead."

Lt Gen Russel Honore, commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, gave us a new one yesterday in his remarks to reporters:

You are stuck on 'stupid!' I'm not going to answer that question.

The video is over at Political Teen. Radioblogger has the transcript and audio.

Honore was already a hero. Now he'll be a legend.

Monk