The power of positive lunacy

Ya gotta love Terry McAuliffe. Or do you?

Terry McAuliffe, for those who aren't already familiar with him, is essentially the Clinton's chief fund-raiser, with a reputation as one of the best cash-grabbers around. He's also a former head of the DNC, and wrote a book last year ("What a Party!") in which he detailed a confrontation with Michigan Sen. Carl Levin over Michigan's moving their primary ahead of the party imposed limits.

Here's the passage from Terry's book:

"You won't deny us seats at the convention," [Levin] said.

"Carl, take it to the bank," I said. "They will not get a credential. The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television. I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules. If you want to call my bluff, Carl, you go ahead and do it."

Of course now McAuliffe is out arguing passionately that, among other things, it would be a travesty if the Michigan (and Florida) delegations aren't seated.

Note: Tim Russert wrote a book about his dad "Big Russ", and rode the hell out of it to burnish his image as an "average guy" (who makes millions a year and has a mansion on Nantucket with the other media elites like Matthews, etc.)

I know I've seen at least one previous guest on Meet the Press invoke "Big Russ" in an attempt to soften Timmy up. Apparently McAuliffe thought he'd go there, and go it one better, with cringe-worthy results.

As you watch bear in mind that "Big Russ" is very much alive.

Thank God for Hitler

...or at least that's the message Sen. John McCain's pal Rev. John Hagee believes.

Hagee thinks that Hitler was Heaven sent, that God put Hitler on earth, caused him to try to exterminate the Jews, thus driving them to Israel so that everything would fit together and make Hagee's vision of the apocalypse all make sense. To the extent that he's been of use in Hagee's full-tilt swindle of hundreds of thousands of religious dupes, Hitler been berry berry good to Hagee's bank account.

In one of his many, shall we say, creative, interpretations of the Bible, Hagee drones that some obscure passage proves that God herself sent none other than that nutty Austrian, Adolf Hitler to "hunt" the Jews and get them to create the state of Israel.

And of course, as in all his bizarre preaching, this fits neatly into Hagee's brand of doomsday Christianity, serving to back up his warped vision of the Apocalypse/Rapture. This requires he and his many followers to be nearly maniacal supporters of Israel and nuclear war with Iran.

Not out of Christian kindness and the belief that all religions should get along. Nooooooo. It's so the Jews can play their little part in the grand Apocalypse, thus helping these "christians" to get sucked up into Heaven like so many plastic canisters at a celestial bank drive-up.

Of course, they don't believe the Jews themselves will make it, as they don't believe that Judaism is a valid religion, and they're certainly not getting into Heaven, unless of course they all convert at the last second. Jews who don't convert to Christianity will roast in Hell along with the rest of us in Hagee's view.

But he exhorts us to support those nice Jews, even if it means we have to engage in nuclear war with Iran. Frankly, he doesn't care what happens to anyone or any nation, as long as it all fits his particular idea of what is called for in his version of the "last days."

Think this little slice of insanity will be played every two minutes for three or four solid days as was Rev. Wright's inflammatory remarks? Don't count on it.

But at least old Sen. John "Get off my lawn!" McCain had the sense to FINALLY throw Hagee under the proverbial bus.

Of course merely referring to Catholicism as "the Great Whore" isn't enough to have McCain reject you. No. McCain was cool with that. It's been known now for months that Hagee has made such statements. Good old "maverick" McCain still hung tough with "agent of intolerance" Hagee after that was well known, no problem there.

But apparently linking God and Hitler was offensive enough to get McCain to do something, even if he was clearly pissed and annoyed at having to do so, enough to take a cheap shot at Obama, who had nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Then Hagee pulled the old, "You can't fire me, I quit." gambit and "un-endorsed" McCain almost simultaneously.

Sen. McCain had courted Hagee assiduously for months, even making a special trip to appear next to and proudly and heartily accept Hagee's ringing endorsement.

And his courtship of Mr Hagee is also well documented. Addressing his Christians United for Israel Church last year, he thanked the pastor for his "spiritual guidance to politicians like me", saying that "it's hard to do the Lord's work in the city of Satan". That would be Washington DC, of course.

But true to form, when finally forced to disavow this lunatic, McCain only got nasty and surly and tried to take a slap at Obama by saying that he didn't attend Hagee's church for 20 years, as Obama had Wright's.

No, but Obama never called Wright his "spiritual guide" either. Nor did he make a huge effort to get and enthusiastically accept Wright's endorsement for political purposes.

This of course, is only the start of the obvious lies and distorted non-sense that will likely make up nearly the entirety of McCain's campaign. After all, what's he going to argue? The war? The economy? Health care? HA! Nope, low, nasty, ad hominem cheap shots while avoiding the issue at hand will be the order of the day.

In Obama's remarks about McCain's affinity for whack-job preachers, Obama said it would be ridiculous to try to suggest that McCain shared Hagee's bizaro world views. For those who might not recognize it, that's a politician being honest and honorable.

But McCain by contrast, couldn't resist taking cheap shots at Obama and continuing to desperately try to tie Obama to Wright in the old "Hey! Look over there!" tactic so popular with the right every time they get exposed. (it only took them what, 6 years to almost stop blaming Clinton for their every failure.)

Frankly, between Obama being guilty of simply appreciating and enjoying the community of an entire church who's preacher said some controversial things a handful of times out of literally thousands of sermons, and McCain purposely, actively, seeking out someone's explicit endorsement for political purposes, (while apparently attending no church whatsoever regularly) is an argument McCain shouldn't want to start.

Obama didn't seek out Wright's endorsement. As a matter of fact, he distanced himself from Wright from the beginning of the campaign. Obama never sought to use Wright as some sort of political feather in his cap, courting those who were close adherants of Wright, but McCain certainly endorsed a nut-job like Hagee by actively seeking to be associated with him and his followers for political purposes.

For all the hot air over Wright, McCain clearly loses the battle of the preachers.

And McCain has still another lovely preacher who wholeheartedly endorses him, Rev. Rod Parsley.

McCain calls Rev. Parsley "one of the truly great leaders of America, a moral compass and spiritual guide."

But Rev. Rod has some, er, peculiar views as well.

Reluctantly, McCain finally had to cut old Rev. Rod loose as well, but again, not until several weeks had passed where this guy's reckless, insane, and hateful ideas were known.

Then there's the completely over-blown mean-spirited tantrum McCain threw in response to Obama merely questioning why a war-hero like himself wouldn't support a G.I. Bill. (Which passed the Senate with the help of Republicans by a veto-proof 75-22 margin.)

Where was McCain? Too busy out doing fund-raisers in California. He skipped out on the vote, such a maverick that he couldn't even be there to cast his "nay" vote.

Obama wondered aloud why McCain wouldn't help support the troops with this much needed measure, which extends to current vets much of the benefits which were given to WWII era vets, such as a college education after 3 years of military service.

"I respect Sen. John McCain's service to our country," Obama said on the Senate floor this morning. "He is one of those heroes of which I speak. But I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this GI Bill. I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans. I could not disagree with him and the president more on this issue."

McCain flew into a rage at the mere thought that this whipper-snapper would dare question him on ANYTHING, and, rather than answering for his truly bizarre stance against the G.I. Bill or explaining why he opposes it, resorted to truly ugly personal attacks on Obama, suggesting that because Obama didn't serve in uniform, he therefore has absolutely zero right to wonder why McCain the war hero refuses to support the G.I. Bill that Obama and nearly every other Senator supports.

A blogger on the Houston Chronicle site laid out McCain's nasty tantrum of a response and added his own dead-on comments:

"It is typical, but no less offensive that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of. Let me say first in response to Senator Obama, running for President is different than serving as President. The office comes with responsibilities so serious that the occupant can't always take the politically easy route without hurting the country he is sworn to defend. Unlike Senator Obama, my admiration, respect and deep gratitude for America's veterans is something more than a convenient campaign pledge. I think I have earned the right to make that claim."

First of all Sen. McCain, how do you know the difference between running for president and serving as president? Have you been president before? Then, talk about cheap shots, McCain makes the usual Republican slam that Democrats are anti-military. Same old, same old.

More from the press release:

"I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did."

Let’s beat that dead horse again, John. If you didn’t serve in the military, you can’t comment on military matters. Yawn. By the way, I don’t recall Sen. McCain making those same remarks about those in the Bush administration who were so gung-ho about going to war in Iraq. Maybe I missed something.

McCain then went on to describe the differences in benefits proposed by Sen. Webb and those he would prefer. In a nutshell, McCain would not like to see the benefits be so "generous" as to lessen the re-enlistment of our soldiers, what he calls "retention." I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it is possible to be too generous to the men and women who have served so valiantly in Iraq. They deserve everything they get, and more.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, who played his usual Charlie McCarthy to McCain’s Edgar Bergen, said the same thing about the bill hurting re-enlistment rates. Don’t these vets know we have many more wars to fight, how dare they want to leave the military and go to college. How selfish can they be (sarcasm intended).

McCain’s press release closed with this:

"Perhaps, if Senator Obama would take the time and trouble to understand this issue he would learn to debate an honest disagreement respectfully. But, as he always does, he prefers impugning the motives of his opponent, and exploiting a thoughtful difference of opinion to advance his own ambitions. If that is how he would behave as President, the country would regret his election."

No Senator, I believe the election the country would regret would be yours.

I would only add that McCain trying to attack Obama for "taking easy advantage" of the issue and "taking the politically easy route" and dismisses Obama's support for a G.I.Bill as "convenient campaign pledge".

Really?

This from a guy who proposed a "gas tax holiday" that was so irresponsible and costly that there was not one economist in the country who supported it? Scolding Obama for supposedly making a "convenient campaign pledge"?

McCain does exhibit a sense of humor, though all too often it reveals his truly mean streak. But recently I thought he was pretty funny when a late-night talk show host asked him if he knew what his Secret Service code name was. McCain replied, "Probably "Jerk"."

I think by the end of this campaign, the entire country might end up referring to him that way.

A dose of reality

You really owe it to yourself to read Sen. Biden's editorial in the WSJ in response to Joe Lieberman's previous piece there.

On Wednesday, Joe Lieberman wrote on this page that the Democratic Party he and I grew up in has drifted far from the foreign policy espoused by Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy.

In fact, it is the policies that President George W. Bush has pursued, and that John McCain would continue, that are divorced from that great tradition – and from the legacy of Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Sen. Lieberman is right: 9/11 was a pivotal moment. History will judge Mr. Bush's reaction less for the mistakes he made than for the opportunities he squandered.

...

At the heart of this failure is an obsession with the "war on terrorism" that ignores larger forces shaping the world: the emergence of China, India, Russia and Europe; the spread of lethal weapons and dangerous diseases; uncertain supplies of energy, food and water; the persistence of poverty; ethnic animosities and state failures; a rapidly warming planet; the challenge to nation states from above and below.

Instead, Mr. Bush has turned a small number of radical groups that hate America into a 10-foot tall existential monster that dictates every move we make.

Someone PLEASE get the hook

I'm wide open. Someone, anyone, please please please explain to me ANY logic that can be used with a straight face to explain why Hillary Clinton is still tilting at windmills and chasing ghosts?

Can anyone venture an opinion as to how, by any stretch of the imagination, it still makes sense for Hillary to continue this doomed race?

Her thinking out loud and revealing that she's seriously thought of the prospect of Barack Obama being assassinated as her big break shows me that she's just... not right.

What the hell is going on? Doesn't she have to drop out or risk becoming an utter disgrace?

This is a transcript of Clinton's remarks to the editorial board of the Argus-Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D.

This is the most important job in the world. It’s the toughest job in the world. You should be willing to campaign for every vote. You should be willing to debate anytime, anywhere. I think it’s an interesting juxtaposition where we find ourselves and you know, I have been willing to do all of that during the entire process and people have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa and I find it...

EB: Why? Why?

I don’t know I don’t know I find it curious because it is unprecedented in history. I don’t understand it and between my opponent and his camp and some in the media, there has been this urgency to end this and you know historically that makes no sense, so I find it a bit of a mystery.

EB: You don’t buy the party unity argument?

I don’t, because again, I’ve been around long enough. You know my husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere around the middle of June

EB: June

We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. Um you know I just I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.

Listen, it's going to be terribly sad when Hillary has to bow out.

Won't someone please stop her from making it tragic as well?

What do you expect?

Reporters asked Davis to diagnose [the Republican] party.

"Well, this is the floor," Davis said, stomping on the concrete beneath him. "And we're underneath the floor." Without strong medicine, he said, Republicans will lose 25 seats in November. "We're the airplane flying into the mountain."

"The Republican brand is in the trash can...if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

- Rep. Tom Davis, former GOP House leader

And then there's this:

A new poll suggests that President Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

Nixon at his lowest never achieved that distinction.

Well, wud'ja expect? It's not like we didn't try to get you to open your eyes.

When you support, defend, and excuse gross incompetence, fool-hardy and failed right wing ideology-based policy, and have supported, defended, and excused a president whose idea of personal sacrifice in solidarity with the thousands of grieving families facing life without their loved ones because they were riddled with shrapnel or otherwise slaughtered while following Bush's orders, is to........ give up his golf game and seriously act like that pretty much makes it even on the sacrifice front. (and then lie about when he quit playing on top of it.)

What, seriously, did you expect? That the American people would forever be content to swallow all the bullshit and ask for more? That you could keep them in a state of perpetual fear and ignorance? That they'd never figure out what some of us have realized for years and years?

That this country is lead by a party of crooks, liars, and incompetents who don't care for our soldiers, don't care about anyone that makes less than a million or so a year and is willing to give a slice of it to them, and couldn't care less about stuff like the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, treaties, and "quaint" stuff like that if it gets in the way of their lust for power and control.

Overshadowed by John Edwards' endorsement of Obama (along with NARAL and the United Steel Workers) was something that is causing Republicans to do something they've avoided for 8 years at least, namely, face the facts. (of course, all the Repubs who've already up and quit to land in cushy lobbying jobs like Trent Lott were ahead of the curve.)

One fact that has their bowels tied in knots is that another Democrat won election in a district that had been solidly Republican for decades, the third in a row.

First a Dem handily took away Denny "The Neckless Wonder" Hastert's seat in Illinois, then damn if another Dem didn't win a seat in a redder than red district in Louisiana, and by gum, just the other day, a Dem won a solid Republican seat in Mississippi.

What's going on there boys? All this talk about race and how Obama can't get the vote down south and so on? Why in the last two elections in the deep south, the Republicans thought it was real smart to try to hammer the Dem candidate by associating them with Obama.

Dang if they didn't get elected anyway. Go figure.

Sooooooo...

I figure you'd be soiling yourself too if you were a Republican. Let's face it, the only arrow in their quiver is to go ugly, go negative, make shit up and try like hell to play on people's ignorance, racism, and irrational fears. The politics of divide and conquer.

They've been playing that note so long (with a lot of success) that they just don't have a Plan B.

So when their ol' reliable is shown to have no effect, almost as if these Dems have some sort of kryptonite shield that bullshit attacks bounce off of, why, these ol' boys are gettin' plenty nervous.

If they can't count on their true base, morons, then they know the jig is up. It's their worst nightmare.... that people have finally figured out that the Republican emperor has no clothes.

Even in the solid south, light bulbs are going off in people's heads at the sad, rather frightening realization that, yes, they really ARE just as bad as that nagging voice in your conscience has been trying to tell you all these years.

You've seen it, you've heard it, but somehow O'Reilly and Limbaugh and Hannity kept convincing you not to believe your lying eyes. Well, believe 'em.

It's hell when people realize you've been lying to their faces and playing them for fools for years. Not pretty.

Republicans themselves estimating they'll lose 25 seats in the house alone? I think it will be more than that. I'd bet on it.

Gee, it must suck to be a Republican who's thumped their chests and mocked and ridiculed all the people who were right about this war and this administration. It was only yesterday these sorts of brownshirts were screaming "un-American" and accusing anyone who pointed out what a lying scam artist Bush was or who dared call attention to the fact that the war was a scam based on outright lies of "hating America" or "hating the troops".

Do you really feel good about being such scuzzy, pompous, uninformed dupes now that the lies you choose to cherish and defend, the very lies that people like myself and others you so lazily choose to pigeon-hole as "the radical left" or other similarly ridiculous and utterly false labels have been proven to be right all along?

I'm going to enjoy watching this house of fraud called the Republican party disintegrate. Couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks. I wonder if I'll be able to resist the temptation to behave as arrogantly and ignorantly cock-sure of myself as they have all these years? I suppose only towards those who, like those die-hard Japanese soldiers holed up in caves on tiny Pacific Islands who kept fighting WWII long after it was over, try to continue to defend the indefensible.

I only feel bad for those sincere Republicans who never fell for the rancorous and poisonous hate-based ideology and rhetoric, the slime-ball politics of fear and division of the bastardized union of neo-con loons and "Christian" right charlatans who have destroyed the party and left the world much worse off for their having ever gotten near positions of power.

I might even make it to the Mark just to hear Sheryl Crow sing the words that have never been more true or more fitting for this country.... "A change.... will do you good."

All good

Maybe our democracy will make it afterall. This is one encouraging sign.

Surveillance. Rendition. Torture.

By many measures, the Bush administration has been bad for civil liberties.

Yet the past seven years have been particularly good for the American Civil Liberties Union. National membership in the organization, which fights for freedom of speech and religion, equal protection, due process and privacy, has doubled since Bush took office in 2001 - an extraordinary spurt of growth for the 88-year-old institution.

Newton had it right, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.

Well, ya can't argue with that..

When Hillary Clinton declared recently that she's got "a broader base", I found myself thinking, "Well, ya got that right!".

Then I felt a tinge of guilt, but it went away.

And I'll feel sincerely sorry for her when she eventually bows out as well.

If anyone was born to campaign, it's the Clintons. And Hillary has had the near-tragic fortune to have gotten better and better on the stump as her chances of actually winning grew smaller and smaller.

I don't like her statements and the tactics she's employed, but then again, she's backed against the wall and faced with either blasting away with both barrels or watching it all slip away.

I'm sure that a part of the Clintons are frustrated beyond measure by the restraint they have to show in deference to the likely nominee.

I know they both want to see a Democrat win, and I also suspect that if this were a general election rather than a primary, they'd be employing a scorched earth policy that would likely leave Obama so bruised, battered, exhausted and confused that he'd be toast.

The fact that they have to pull their punches while watching their chances slip down the tubes has got to be a fate worse than death to two people so super-humanly devoted to winning elections, and with super-human amounts of stamina, drive, and always committed to keep fighting tooth, fang, and claw until someone (always them, so far) emerges the winner.

I realized recently that if Hillary goes down, it would be the first defeat for either Clinton since Bill lost his second bid for Arkansas governor (which he won again the next election.)

There's got to be a part of Hillary deep down that wants to show her husband what she can do as President. Maybe to get back at him in a way... maybe just from having to sit by most of the time while her husband was President, and having everything she tried to do as first lady dumped on and dismissed, and failing herself at the politics of health care reform.

I'm sure she's got a laundry list of things that she's carried around ever since that gives her an incredible inner drive to get back in the White House and do it right this time.... to REALLY put her stamp on things and accomplish goals that she (and the majority of Americans) believe are badly needed.

I have no doubt that she's driven by firmly held goals she wants to accomplish which she feels would help the country, and help the majority of its citizens, rather than the plutocracy, which have helped themselves without restraint for far too long now.

She's done OK at articulating those goals, but I'm sure that we don't know the half of it. Both Clinton's are devoted policy wonks, happy to plunge into the often arcane nuts and bolts of various programs and how to fund them, etc.

I have no doubt that Hillary would be excellent at domestic policy. In that respect, I'd be happy were she to be vice-president, though it appears that chance is zero to none.

If Clinton finally bows out, and it appears that she'll have to sooner or later, even if it's two minutes after Obama clinches the nomination, there will be a huge degree of sadness from many, including myself, that this valiant woman, possessing so much intelligence, energy, vision, and talent, capable of doing much good for this country and her people, will not get to realize the dreams she's clearly been working toward for several decades of her life.

It's never enjoyable to see someone get so maddeningly close to such a lofty and difficult goal, only to fall short by relative inches.

Despite the goofy polls which have gotten the pundits in a tizzy showing that Obama supporters won't support Hillary and Hillary supporters won't support Obama if either emerges the nominee, and even more goofy, the large number who supposedly say they'd vote for McCain rather than the other Democrat, I have no fear.

First, while it's amply demonstrated on a daily basis that yes, Americans ARE just that ignorant, short-sighted, shallow, and plain stupid, I still refuse to believe that any significant number of voters who supported Hillary, even passionately, would be so smack-ya-in-the-forehead stupid as to actually vote for McCain out of spite or sour grapes.

As I said, people are very, VERY dumb, but seriously, that would take the cake.

What kind of person could possibly support Hillary or Obama and their policy positions (pro life, anti-war, for universal health care, and on and on) and then decide to vote for someone who's the polar opposite simply because Hillary didn't get the nomination?

When you step back, the difference between Hillary and Obama is almost negligible as far as policy matters. If the political spectrum were a football field, Hillary and Obama would be between the 10 and 20 yard lines and McCain down the field and somewhere in the opposite end zone. There's a hell of a lot of difference between the clearly failed and destructive policies that McCain clings to and a return to sound, practical, policies that serve the people who pay for it all rather than the top 1%.

Assuming the people responding to these polls are even marginally rational in their decisions, (by no means assured.) that leaves only one ugly conclusion, that if these people actually would vote for McCain rather than Obama, given how far from Hillary McCain is positioned, the only possible reason must be ugly, irrational, flat-out racism. And that may explain Hillary's recent comments and their attempt to tout her strength with "hard working white voters".

(As to the issue of Hillary's recent statement regarding her strength with white voters, I don't think she was being racist in the slightest, as some try to suggest. I DO, however, think she knew exactly what she was doing, namely driving a wedge of race into the matter, and she isn't above cynically exploiting it (or anything else for that matter)).

Let's see, where was I? Oh yeah, I'm supremely confident that the much hyped splintering of Democrats and more importantly, independents and "Obamacans", won't happen on nearly the scale breathless Republicans and pundits suggest.

I think there will be an overwhelming outpouring of good feelings towards Hillary when she concedes, for all the reasons above, and the fact that there's NO ONE who can ignore just how tough, how tenacious, how hard she's battled and never given up and never given in, and frankly, for the reasons so many like her, that she's at heart a decent human being who truly has devoted her life to making life better for millions of people. All the cynical and calculating, phony and pandering moves she's made will be forgotten and forgiven nearly instantly.

The moment she makes a speech in which she extols Obama and her commitment to doing everything in her power to help him get elected, and the moment they appear on stage together and hold each other's hand above their heads, there's going to be such a rush of excitement and electricity that nothing will stop it.

That moment, that image, the new face, full of the promise of a new way of politics as we know it, and the devoted and worthy opponent who fought so valiantly and so hard, the face of the "old", an icon of the political history of this generation, embracing the new.

I'm telling you, McCain won't have a prayer, and they'll know it. And since they can't even compete on issues or policy, they'll uncork one of the most disgusting and slimy gutter politics campaigns ever seen.

And the public will get sick of it and it will blow up in their faces, and Obama will cruise to victory and Democrats will pick up large majorities in both houses.

It's a new day coming.

Republicans, we've got a few hundred tons of your "Get over it"'s to throw back in your faces. Turns out we're about to "get over it", just hope it's not too late to save the democracy.

Just like clockwork: Republican Family Values case #499277

Goodfella Vito Fosella, you may remember him from his frothing indignation and condemnation of President Bill Clinton for having such low moral character, shows he's a normal Republican liar and raging hypocrite.

Maybe in the future, I could save time and just report the sanctimonious figures in the Republican party who AREN'T some sort of adulterer, homosexual, pervert, predator, sexual deviant, or other sort of degenerate.

Looking back, I think we might have begun to wonder why it was that although Fossella has been in Congress for more than 10 years, he did not seem to have a Washington address. Really, that’s a little long to crash with friends.

Fossella has embarked on a series of mea culpas, beginning with a drunken driving incident that set the whole crisis in motion. “As a parent, I know that taking even one drink of alcohol before getting behind the wheel of a car is wrong,” he said. This was actually one of those nonapology apologies, since “taking even one drink” does not have much relationship to attaining a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit.

His adventures began last week with a White House party to celebrate the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory. (Although that triumph feels as if it occurred six years ago, the Bush administration was a little slow in taking note.) The congressman continued partying. He was arrested in Alexandria, Va., around midnight after going through a red light and failing the recite-the-alphabet test. (Fossella appeared to have trouble deciding exactly where “H” goes.)

He told the police officer that he was on his way to take his daughter to the hospital, which did not seem like a good plan from the daughter’s perspective. Then he summoned a friend, in the form of Laura Fay, a retired Air Force officer who plunked down $2,500 to spring the man who, we would discover, was the father of her child and a familiar sight to the neighbors of her nearby home.

Not only a sanctimonious and phony hypocrite and adulterer, but stupid to boot.