My Friend W

In this inane collection of political satire, Canadian columnist Martin offers up short comic pieces in which the choice of offbeat form constitutes virtually the only creatively intriguing element. The result is a lot of high-concept formatting, with the humor content remaining labored, toothless and obvious. ""Al Gore's Xmas Wish List,"" for example, starts with ""Freedom of information recounts in Florida that show an overwhelming number of under-votes for me."" ""The Gospel According to Karl Rove"" intones: ""Blessed is the Christian right, for they shall be called my electoral base."" A Martha Stewart cookbook supposedly has a recipe for ""Conflict of Interest Casserole,"" while still another cookbook parody features ""John Ashcroft's Constitutional Puree"" and ""Colin Powell's Misgiving Turkey."" A list of Bush's favorite birthday party games includes ""Pin the Blame on the Democrats."" Yes, the satire is that bad. Incredibly, editors from the New York Times and the Washington Post bought some of these bland, thuddingly unfunny pieces for their op-ed pages.