Where's Waldo? At the State of the Union

At the State of Union Undress, I did not see Carter?

Where's Waldo? Jimmy Carter, a tie for the worst president ever, is still to close to call. Their may be a tie breaker between now and 2008. We have a way to go yet with our present fixture in the Whitehouse.

The pen pal, Carter who's epitaph, strives for life after death wrote, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid", an anti-Israeli credo.

Maybe the reason for his absence might have something to do with the Carter Center having accepted millions in Arab funding.

Carter’s book has drawn much-overdue attention to some of the funding that pours into the Carter Center, whose intriguing donor list includes anti-Israeli tycoons and Middle East states.

A number of articles have noted that Carter’s anti-Israeli views coincide with those of some of the center’s prime financial backers, including the government of Saudi Arabia and the foundation of Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, whose offer of $10 million to New York City just after Sept. 11 was rejected by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani because it came wrapped in the suggestion that America rethink its support of Israel.

Other big donors listed in the Carter Center’s annual reports include the Sultanate of Oman and the sultan himself; the government of the United Arab Emirates; and a brother of Osama bin Laden, Bakr BinLadin, “for the Saudi BinLadin Group.” Of lesser heft, but still large, are contributions from assorted development funds of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as of OPEC, whose membership includes oil-rich Arab states, Nigeria (whose government is also a big donor to the Carter Center), and Venezuela (whose anti-American strongman Hugo Chávez benefited in a 2004 election from the highly controversial monitoring efforts of the cataracts covered hindsight of the Carter Center.

Come to think about it, I thank God we were spared the sight of Jimmy Carter's piano smile at the State of the Union undress