We're going to get right back to our ongoing Stevular Disney drama in a second, here, but can we just add one more teensy piece of unrelated evidence that Michael Eisner is bleeding the spirit right out of Disney even as he's draining the value out of the company's stock? Because, see, we took yesterday off because it was President's Day, which is one of this country's most sacred holidays. It's a day on which we, as a nation, reflect on the many accomplishments of our past great leaders by sleeping in, skipping work, and buying appliances at low, low prices. Besides, what plot advancements could we possibly miss, since any reasonably nontreasonous U.S.-based company would be all but shut down? But no: the Eisnerian Disney saw fit to disrespect our past, present, and future Commanders in Chief by actually doing stuff yesterday, instead of taking lots of naps and going to the mall and buying half-price cordless drills as was the duty of every patriotic American.

See, according to CNET (who, instead of shopping, was writing articles on President's Day-- don't think we missed that little infraction, folks), Disney's board of directors announced yesterday that it has reviewed the buyout offer floated publicly last week by Comcast and is going to pass, stating that it "has confidence in the business, financial, and creative direction of Disney under the leadership of Michael Eisner and his management team." Ridiculous? Well, sure, it's ridiculous, but you have to remember that anyone on the board who isn't an Eisner crony (personally installed by him as a convenient Yes Man) was either ousted last year or quit in disgust, so while the board's claimed confidence in Eisner may indeed be ludicrous, it isn't exactly surprising. At any rate, Steve Jobs is presumably happy about the rejection, since it's been said that he was trying to rally some counteroffers last week. Of course, Comcast could always attempt a hostile takeover anyway, we suppose, but we don't think they want to give us that much material.

Meanwhile, in response to Steve's snarky anti-Eisner comments during the recent Pixar earnings conference call, apparently Eisner took a shot or two of his own: faithful viewer Marc points out a Reuters article quoting Eisner as saying that Steve "created the computer, or at least Windows, or whatever he created, and did a good job," which reportedly prompted "peals of laughter" from the analysts he was addressing. Of course, it's not entirely clear to us that Eisner was indeed being sarcastic and the analysts were laughing with him or if he really is clueless enough to have been serious, and the analysts were laughing at him. (Remember how he whined to the feds that "Rip. Mix. Burn." was commanding Apple customers to pirate music? Riiiight.) Still, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, seeing as he also said "Acquisitions? Oh-- we're buying Comcast!" No one's that confused. But plenty of people mistakenly think they're that funny.

Somehow we can't see ol' Walt approving of Eisner's base sarcasm, although, hey, we'll take the drama any way we can get it. Steve, however, seems unwilling to stoop to Eisner's "look how clever I am because I said something that's the opposite of reality and that makes it hilarious" level of humor. Instead of saying that "Eisner invented Mickey Mouse so he must be really cool," he's sticking with the subtler and more diplomatic jabs: according to the San Francisco Chronicle, recently "Jobs went so far as to declare that Pixar had surpassed Disney as 'the most powerful and trusted brand in animation.'" Which is, of course, just a classier way of saying that Disney under Eisner's rule churns out dreck. (Meanwhile, "dreck" is, of course, just our classier way of saying "crap.")

Gee, now which of these two leaders do you suppose Walt might pick if given the choice? If this sniping goes on much longer, someone's going to have to defrost his head and ask.