Bush to The Onion: "Leave me the $#@! alone!"

The pressure is getting pretty heavy at the White House, apparently. You know they're losing it when they can't take a joke.

The Bush administration has reportedly sent a cease and desist to The Onion ordering the paper to stop using the Presidential Seal in its parody news stories about Bush.

"It has come to my attention that The Onion is using the presidential seal on its Web site," Grant M. Dixton, associate counsel to the president, wrote to The Onion on Sept. 28. (At the time, Mr. Dixton's office was also helping Mr. Bush find a Supreme Court nominee; days later his boss, Harriet E. Miers, was nominated.)

Citing the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the seal "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement." Exceptions may be made, he noted, but The Onion had never applied for such an exception.

The Onion was amused. "I'm surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion," Scott Dikkers, editor in chief, wrote to Mr. Dixton. He suggested the money be used instead for tax breaks for satirists.

Lawyers for The Onion point out that the 3 million people who visit the paper's website each week, along with its 500,000 print readers, are likely aware that the stories are neither sponsored nor approved by President Bush. And, that the stories are, you know, fake.

This is entirely of a piece with the Daily News item that has Bush doing his best impression of Nixon during Watergate. He is falling apart. He sees enemies everywhere. "They" are out to get him. Nothing is his fault. If only the people could see that he had only the best intentions. But, history will vindicate him, dammit!

The main difference between Dicky and Dubya is that when Nixon obsessed about his enemies in the press, he retained enough of his wits to confine his criticism to real journalists.