Art critic and newly published poet J. August Buehler contributes these Powell quotes:

Even Secretary of State Powell seemed to be struggling to invent new ways to describe international cooperation in general and the role of the United Nations in the reconstruction of Iraq in particular. In an interview in Washington last Friday, he described the United Nations role as that of a "chapeau" and a "vessel."

Defining chapeau, the French word for hat, "as more than a hat," he said, "Chapeau is a cover. But I don't want to say cover in the sense we're covering something. It essentially provides an endorsement, an international recognition for what's being done, an international recognition for what's being done, an umbrella. An international umbrella for what's being done - chapeau."

He added that the United Nations would also serve as a "vessel in which you can put resources from which you can draw - vessel, like glass."

Powell went on to make a humorless quip about French-American "marriage counseling" and then called said quip "one of my great lines of the decade," which, unfortunately, was probably accurate. This is why Powell will never be president: He'd lose even to Al Gore.