America: Laura Bush has a reputation for sweetness, so when she described the action of someone as "odd and awkward, to be perfectly frank" you knew she was putting the knife in, writes Conor O'Clery
The target of the First Lady's cutting remark was Doug Wead, an evangelical "friend" of the Bushes who broke the code of omerta and published secret tape recordings of conversations he had with George when he was governor of Texas. The exchanges embarrassed the president, as he appeared to acknowledge the past use of narcotics.
The White House responded cryptically that Bush considered them casual conversations with "someone he believed was his friend". Wead said that he had released the tapes because they were important for history and that there was more to come. By astonishing coincidence this episode coincided with the publication of his book The Raising of a President: The Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation's Leaders.
But if Wead sought to plug his book, his plan backfired and may have damaged his career writing books on family and religious themes. He felt the cold blast of disapproval from the Christian right for his "betrayal" of the president. By mid-week Wead buckled. He posted a message on his website expressing his regrets and acknowledging that personal relationships were more important. He would give the tapes to the president, he stated, adding, "History can wait."
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Another conservative feeling the wrath of the right this week is film star and director Clint Eastwood, a law-and-order icon of the Reagan era who was once elected Republican mayor of Carmel, California.
In his exceptional movie Million Dollar Baby, which is hotly tipped for Oscars tomorrow, Eastwood plays Frankie, a weathered fight trainer who reluctantly takes on Maggie, a boxer played by Hilary Swank, and makes a champion out of her. Maggie acquires a huge, noisy following among Irish-Americans because Frankie, a Mass-goer who reads Gaelic as a hobby, gives her a green robe emblazoned with the misspelt Irish words "mo chuisle".
Literally "mo chuisle" means "my pulse", and according to the website irishgaelictranslator.com, comes from a longer phrase, "a chuisle mo chroí" meaning "pulse of my heart".
The movie features the traditional values that Eastwood often champions: rugged individuality, hard work, endurance and courage. But the movie has a twist at the end (if you don't want to know, stop reading here).
After a foul punch Maggie is left a helpless paraplegic, and Frankie's Catholicism is put to the test when faced with the choice of pulling the plug and stopping her pulse forever.
His decision to do so has made Million Dollar Baby the target of talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh who called it a "million-dollar euthanasia movie". Ted Baehr, head of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a California group "guided by biblical principles", called it "very anti-Catholic". Campaigners for the disabled also expressed unease that the movie sent the wrong message to people with spinal cord injuries.
Eastwood responded that the film was intended "to make you think about the precariousness of life and how we handle it", and that in real life he would not have done what Frankie did.
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Clint Eastwood (74), is not the only old guy that conservatives have in their sights. The White House is furious with the 35 million-member American Association of Retired People (AARP) because of its opposition to President Bush's plans to partly privatise social security, the central issue for his second term.
A conservative lobbying group that has raised millions of dollars for Republican causes is now launching a $10 million attack on the association.
It has hired several of the Republican consultants behind from last summer's campaign by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to portray John Kerry as less than a hero in Vietnam. The same tactics can now be seen at work. USA Next ran an ad on its website claiming that the AARP was against the troops and in favour of gay marriage. It was quickly withdrawn in the face of outrage from retirees.
The AARP is fighting back with its own ads against Bush's plan to put some social security taxes into investment accounts: "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."
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Recently a reporter in the White House known as Jeff Gannon drew attention to himself by throwing a blatantly "softball" question to the president.
He was investigated by liberal bloggers who found that his real name was James Guckert, that he worked for a partisan Republican website in Texas, and that he once posed as a $200-an-hour gay escort.
The Wall Street Journal noted this week that a reporter called Russell Mokhiber posed a "hardball" question at a White House press briefing on February 1st. he asked: "Does the president believe in Commandment No 6 - 'Thou shalt not kill' - as it applies to the US invasion of Iraq?" (White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded, "Next question.")
It turns out that Mokhiber is a former Ralph Nader campaign volunteer who writes a Web diary called "Scottie & Me" about his exchanges with the president's spokesman on the website of Common Dreams News Center, an organisation of self-described anti-war progressives based in Portland Maine.
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Paris Hilton, like Bush, also had her privacy invaded this week, when a hacker published celebrity phone numbers and messages downloaded from her mobile phone.
The hotel heiress apologised to friends whose numbers and cryptic messages were revealed, including someone called Colin and someone called Conor.
The first, I presume, is Colin Farrell. If the latter is me, well, don't worry about it Paris.