Lengthy MySQL query being exec
You have to work very hard at caching. Particularly if the page is static, then make sure you caching on in  Home → Administer → Site configuration. 

If this is not enough investigate 'boost cache' or alternative caching systems. This can takes some work to setup/prime and tune. 

Caching most effective way of getting drupal-6 to be performant. What queries drupal makes can't really be beaten as you can't change the logic of Drupal. If the queries aren't being made at all because of caching they won't be slow.

Second thing. You could also make sure that MySQL is using INNODB tables and that you have set innodb_buffer_pool_size to as high a level as you can given memory limitations. Here is a MySQL tuning script that might provides some hints http://www.day32.com/MySQL/.

Third thing is to make sure that only the modules that are in use are installed on the system. Every module has an overhead.