Some members of the elitist liberal media pilloried our poor president this morning for asking very little of the American people in his speech. Fly a flag or write a letter, he said, and maybe help a military family -- but only if they happen to live close by.

As it turns out George Bush knows his audience -- which happened to be predominantly Republican -- a lot better than these pooh-poohing nabobs of negativity. As Max Blumenthal reveals in the Nation today, public service is not a conservative virtue.

Shiny-faced college Republicans have excellent reasons for not joining the great crusade for freedom underway in Baghdad. Colin Kelly has "a nagging football injury from high school." Besides, he's just following orders from his parents who are "old hippies" aka giant pussies. Edward Hauser is "a fighter, but with words," because nothing frightens Zarqawi more than a few well-chosen words. The kids down in Georgia are too busy organizing "Support Your Troops" day and sending out care packages -- here's a cookie to go with that grenade, soldier.

Then there's Cory Bray who sums it all up: "I'm not putting my ass on the line because I had the opportunity to go to the number-one business school in the country, and I wasn't going to pass that up."

Who has time to fight a war when there's money to be made.