Writing in the New York Times, former W. flack Ari Fleischer confirms what the sage amongst us have long suspected: That the Yankees could not win a World Series because they, and the country, were cursed while George W. Bush was in the White House.

(All right, he didn’t say the “and the country” part, but that’s only because he has his head so far up Bush’s rear he gives new meaning to the phrase “putting words in his mouth.”)

It’s not lost on me, as a lifelong Yankee fan, that the Bronx Bombers won the World Series four times during Bill Clinton’s presidency, the last time in 2000. On Wednesday, they won it again — in the first year of Barack Obama’s administration. Yankee success bookended the Bush presidency and that presents a problem for fans like me.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was standing in the Oval Office when the president secretly put his curse on my team….

What Fleischer seems to be saying is that if you love America, and you respect your parents, and you think ice cream is a good thing, then you love the Yankees.

If not…well, best not to think about it.