Suck on it Friedman

So I’m walking out of Sardi’s in NYC tonight after a nice corporate dinner and while I’m waiting near the coat check for my companion to come back from the bathroom I realize that I’m standing right next to Tom Friedman.

I know I shouldn’t say anything but I feel compelled to call Friedman out about something so I open my big mouth and say, “Paul,…you are Paul Krugman right?”

(Okay. I had a couple of drinks and was feeling a little nervous about that I was going to do, so I flubbed the beginning.)

Freidman says, “No, I’m Tom. Paul is the guy with the beard.” He was very affable but it did not persuade me to back off. I wanted to say what I was about to say which was:

“So Tom, do you think America should still go around telling countries to ‘suck it?’ “

He lost his affability and said, “I would not say something like that.” So I said, “Really? You didn’t say America should tell another country to suck on this? or suck this?”

No, I wouldn’t say something like that.” Friedman said.

“Oh. Okay. My bad.” I said, “I thought you said that Iraq should suck on it.”

………………………….

Click here to see Tom Friedman opine that America should say, “Suck on this, Iraq”