According to CNN, she's saying Senator Clinton didn't ask her to do so.

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Sean Hackbarth notes that National Review is "firing a warning shot" at John McCain regarding his choice of a running mate, and the signals that might send out thereby to that nebulous entity, "the base." It seems to me that McCain is in an awfully tricky spot, here, inasmuch as neither the SoCons nor the economic conservatives (much less the libertarians) are thrilled with him to begin with.

The NRO editors want to make sure that the delegates don't merely rubber-stamp a Veep candidate who is too far to the left; Hackbarth gets concrete about this:

If he picks the populist Mike Huckabee he upsets economic conservatives. If he picks a pro-abortion candidate he alienates social conservatives.

Mitt Romney would be a safe pick. He was talk radioÂ’s and many conservative activistsÂ’ last-minute non-McCain pick. The flip-flop attacks wouldnÂ’t hold as much water, but IÂ’m sure either Team Obama or Team Clinton could confront Romney with some ads he ran against McCain. But then again, voters donÂ’t choose a President because of the running mate. On the plus side, Romney could be McCainÂ’s chief economic expert. McCain will need all the help he can get during these troubled economic times.

Because of the bad blood from the primaries I canÂ’t see McCain picking Mitt.

Which is too bad; Romney would be the perfect pick to re-establish a rapport with conservatives. I'd love to see Fred Thompson back in this role, though I know he likely wouldn't take it, and he wouldn't be willing to take on the "attack dog" responsibilities that the Veep candidate is often assigned. Hackbarth concludes that "Republican base politics will play a role in McCainÂ’s pick, but I donÂ’t think it will be the most important consideration."

This is a issue for the McCain folks, since Johnny Mac doesn't have a lock on either the swing voters or the base. I do think the person has to appear like an even-tempered person who can talk Johnny Mac through the occasional black rage.

Again, though: that depends on which kind of VP this person is going to be: the traditional VP who waits around for the President to die, or the Dick Cheney type, who acts as a sort of uber-Chief of Staff, and takes an active role in advising the CIC. Campaigns never stipulate which type of Veep we're getting. (Though perhaps W.J. Clinton did, with the "two for the price of one" rhetoric, which clearly suggested that the First Lady would be the President's primary advisor.)

Hackbarth mentions the buzz about Governor Mark Sanford (South Carolina) and Tim Pawlenty (Minnesota), but points out that "if Jeb Bush had a different last name heÂ’d be the no-brainer pick (and could have been the Presidential nominee), but thatÂ’s the hand McCain and conservatives have been dealt."

Yeah, well: If Jeb can convert to Roman Catholicism and marry a Latina (which puts him in an interracial relationship from the point of view of all those who see "Hispanics" as a different race), why can't he just change his freakin' last name?

I still think there would be some concrete advantages to running Condi, inasmuch as McCain's strongest card is the sense people have that he'll prosecute the War on Terror with some vigor, and won't simply withdraw from Iraq. However, I know she carries some baggage with her from the current administration, and I'm well aware that she doesn't really want to be President. Whoever takes this on has to be ready to go all the way, should there be a second McCain term.

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. . . China.

Is there nothing we can do to help the Tibetan people except put inane bumper stickers on our cars? One feels so powerless . . .

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It isn't like they were the same hookers.

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Can we have our million dollars, now?

Can we go?

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Hello? Now Sinbad is getting it mixed up as well. Blackface was generic. Barack Obama is a specific guy.

Via Instapundit, who has links and observations:

A reader emails: "Let me see if I've got this straight: a white man is not allowed to portray a half-white man (Barack Obama) on SNL, but a black man is? Race relations in this country are a bigger joke than anything you'll see on SNL." President Clinton wanted a national conversation on race. Looks like they've got one going now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: "Is Obama black or white? Yes." I'm well aware of the one-drop rule. What's changed, though, is who seems most interested in enforcing it.

The second update therein goes to Baldilocks, who points out correctly that the crucial issue is who gets to decide whether someone is black. True enough, but even Juliette has conjectured that people like me (white people with inexplicably full lips) may have some African ancestry. There's no way of knowing any more. And the more mixed-up we get, the more clearly people will see the irrelevance of race.

I just don't think anyone is pure-bred anything any more, and Lorne Michaels should cast the best actor for the job. In comedy, that means the most brutal and ruthless caricaturist. Politics is tough; it's supposed to be tough. And comedy is tougher, if you do it right.

By the way: Tiger Woods is all-black, too: don't you ever forget it. Black beats Asian. And a royal flush beats a straight flush, godammit.

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More insight from Heidi Fleiss:

"It's so easy not to get caught," reformed Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss tells Radar, adding that she provided service to many a well-known politician [in] her day. "I saw many famous people—more famous than Eliot Spitzer—and you know what, you pay people right, you treat them right, you don't have a problem." The devil, she says, was in Spitzer's particular freak, which left the gals who are alleged to have serviced him describing the governor as "difficult," with demands that involved "things that, like, you might not think were safe."

"I'm sure he wanted anal sex without condoms," Fleiss says, speculating but strangely confident.

There are worse things, of course. If you're not a hooker. (Hint: tiny women shouldn't date men who are hung like firehoses. Moderation in all things, or you end up with sore ovaries.)

But if Spitzer was as "difficult" in the bedroom as he was in his political life, I'm sure he made just as many enemies in the one realm as in the other. To be fair, however, it was his handling of the financial arrangements that led to his undoing.

Via Dan Collins Karl at Protein Wisdom.

UPDATE: Error fixed; I don't know why I got the Protein Wisdom guys mixed up—maybe because those people all look the same to me.

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. . . like there's a really good White Album joke to be made about the Spitzer situation, if I could only think of it.

No—not that White Album. That White Album.

Via Hackbarth.

(The Beatles! Whatever happened to them? They were so hittable before they became 50% dead.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:08 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Yeah, but don't you have to play the song backwards to hear truth to power? (Paul IS the walrus, you know.) Revolution 9 (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) Lead Vocals: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and George Harrison [Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised... Well, do it next time. I forgot about it, George, I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Yes.] Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number... ...then there's this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants ...about the shortage of grain in Hertfordshire Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a litter slower but... It's all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who's always/umpteen ... Your father's giving it diddly-i-dee/district was leaving... Intended to die ... Ottoman ...long gone through... I've got (FLUFFY)to say, irritably and... ...floors, hard enough to put on ... per day's MD in our district There was not really enough light to get down And ultimately ... slumped down Suddenly... They may stop the funding... Place your bets The original Afraid she'll die ... Great colours for the season Number 9, number 9 Who's to know? Who was to know? Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9, number 9 I sustained nothing worse than ... Also, for example Whatever you're doing A business deal falls through I informed him on the third night, when fortune gives... People ride, people ride Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Ride! Ride! Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 ...I've missed all of that It makes me a few days late Compared with, like, wow! And weird stuff like that... ...taking our sides sometimes ...floral bark Rouge doctors have brought this specimen I have nobody's short-cuts, aha... 9, number 9 ...with the situation They are standing still The plan, the telegram... Number 9, number... A man without terrors from beard to false As the headmaster reported to my son He really can try, as they do, to find function... Tell what he was saying, and his voice was low and his hive high And his eyes were low... Alright! It was on fire and his glasses were the same This thing knows if it was tinted But you know it isn't To me it is... Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9 So the wife called me and we'd better go to see a surgeon to price it ... Yellow underclothes So, any road, we went to see the dentist instead Who gave her a pair of teeth which wasn't any good at all So I said I'd marry, join the fucking navy and went to sea In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair I'm not in the mood for whirling How? Dogs for dogging, hands for clapping Birds for birding and fish for fishing Them for themming and when for whimming ...only to find the night-watchman unaware of his presence in the building Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9 Number 9 Industry allows financial imbalance Thrusting it between his shoulder blades The Watusi, the twist Eldorado Take this, brother, may it serve you well Maybe it's nothing What? What? Oh... Maybe, even then, impervious in London ...could be difficult thing... It's quick like rush for peace is because it's so much Like being naked It's alright, it's alright It's alright, it's alright It's alright, it's alright It's alright, it's alright It's alright If, you became naked

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 07:14 PM (H79FJ)

2 Depending, of course, on one's proclivities

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 12, 2008 06:04 PM (hr1i5)

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Bidinotto on the weird myopia of the media; and their refusal to see the Spitzer scandal as being about more than sex.

He thought he was an Untouchable; but then, that is the way of those consumed by lust.

Lust for power, that is.

Yup.

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Don't get the insecure, homely testosterosphere mad at you . . . or you'll hear much worse. Just sayin'.

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In case you haven't seen Iowahawk's take on the Spitzer Scandal:

"We want to assure the expensive whore-buying public—whether they are drug dealers, washed-out big-league ball players, or compulsive gamblers on a temporary hot streak—that when they purchase one of our products, that fine bitch will now be DNA-tested and certified 100% free of contaminants from politicians or journalists," said Williams.

Despite the new assurances, Rizzo says it may take years for the whore industry's luxury segment to recover from the incident.

"The saddest thing is what it done to the youngsters, those starry-eyed 17- and 18-year old boys out there who dream someday of blowing thirty or forty thousand dollars on a hotel room full of beautiful, high-end hookers," said Rizzo. "Sure, only a few ever achieve it, but that boyhood dream has always been universal. After the Spitzer incident, thought, I'm just not sure whether that's true anymore."

People never stop to consider the human cost.

(I did not add hyphens to Iowahawk's quote. Oh, wait: I did. And, as usual, I changed the double-hyphens to em-dashes. I like to keep things tidy, you know.)

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1 Fuck the taxpayers en masse from your first day in public office and nobody says peep except the NYT that puts you as the Presidential front runner after Obama finishes his two terms. Fuck them one-by-one and everybody makes a Federal case out of it! Sheesh! Talk about hypocrisy!

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 03:26 PM (WYcE7)

2 Darrell, have you had dinner yet? If not, please go do so. If you had, it's time for your after-dinner drink.

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 03:48 PM (hr1i5)

3 I can't. The monkeys need their ration.

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 06:53 PM (H79FJ)

4 !

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 07:19 PM (hr1i5)

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Agent Bedhead says hi, and gets down with her celebrity-blogging. Hey—at least she's not ripping Madonna for being ripped.

She's just pointing out that the M.G. might be having a fling, and that the age differences involved are significant. Personally, I've always felt that 10-15 years was sort of the outside edge on that age-difference dealio, but what the hell do I know?

BTW, whatever happened to Dustin Hoffman? He used to be so sexy. Now he's, ya know . . . distinguished. I saw him once, when I was working at the Westside Twin Theatres. He came in and borrowed a pencil, which my boyfriend at the time saved for me. I've since lost track of it, of course.

My friend Kate Sanford worked with Hoffman on American Buffalo, and has also edited Sex and the City, with "Ol' Butterpecs," Sarah Jessica Parker. I rather think Katie might have kissed Sean Penn back in the 1980s, since I've been informed that my "Madonna number" is . . . um, one or two. Around there. (One of her jobs on At Close Range was, she told me at the time, "keeping reporters away from Sean Penn.")

Maybe that's why I defend Madonna. Maybe I wish that number were zero. In any event, I happen to think she's still hot, muscles and all. Apparently, I'm not the only one, despite Ragnar at Rusty's site deciding she's looks like Gollum. (Was that before, or after G's transformation? Just curious. And I'd still like to see a picture of Ragnar, since he's so discriminating. He must be Santa Fe-hot.)

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1 Perhaps he (Ragnar) meant golem. "In Jewish folklore, a golem (גולם, sometimes, as in Yiddish, pronounced goilem) is an animated being created entirely from inanimate matter. In modern Hebrew the word golem literally means "cocoon", but can also mean "fool", "silly", or even "stupid". The name appears to derive from the word gelem (גלם , which means "raw material"...The word golem is used in the Bible to refer to an embryonic or incomplete substance: Psalm 139:16 uses the word גלמי, meaning my unshaped form. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person ("Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one", Pirkei Avot 5:7). Similarly, golems are often used today in metaphor either as brainless lunks or as entities serving man under controlled conditions but hostile to him in others. Similarly, it is a Yiddish slang insult for someone who is clumsy or slow." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 12:04 PM (JW+3p)

2 Personally, I've always felt that 10-15 years was sort of the outside edge on that age-difference dealio, but what the hell do I know? A handy rule of thumb is the half plus seven rule. If you are dating someone younger than yourself, divide your own age in two then add seven years. If your date is younger than the result of this simple equation you are a perv. And also likely wealthy, in extraordinary shape or have an dark wave/industrial act in local goth clubs.

Posted by: Flea at March 11, 2008 01:47 PM (o6uVS)

3 Madonna is hot. The only real problem that I have with her has nothing to do with looks...but more in forgetting where she came from. Rabbi Stanley Boteach said it well: "[F]or many years Madonna vulgarized our culture, exposed her body to America's teenagers and generally portrayed women in a highly degrading light. But after she became a mom, she moved to England, essentially complaining that America was too decrepit a culture to raise kids. That's a bit unfair. When it was our kids, she didn't mind corrupting them. But when it was hers, she fled to a safer environment."

Posted by: agent bedhead at March 11, 2008 01:47 PM (YwUEf)

4 I'm a bit of a noob about Madonna Numbers. Does it involved having sex or merely being acquainted?

Posted by: John at March 11, 2008 02:56 PM (glNKY)

5 Or potential STDs?

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 03:28 PM (WYcE7)

6 Madonna Numbers... "Degree of sexual separation" If one kissed, say, someone who kissed Sean Penn, that would be "one" because Mr. Penn "did the deed" with the M-Girl. They would also have a cast-iron stomach, ie, a high threshold for nausea, due to that proximity to Penn.

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 03:37 PM (WYcE7)

7 Hey! I'll have you know that I went to high school with Sean Penn . . .

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 03:49 PM (hr1i5)

8 You mean you could have spared us all and you did nothing? I mean, if he was in a small boat, like he was when he was "saving" all those folks in New Orleans after Katrina, the one where the boat took on water and he and his tweaker friends were trying to bail it out with a red Solo 16 oz plastic cup, couldn't you have cut the bottom from the Solo cup? And wouldn't they have drowned before they figured it out?

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 07:03 PM (H79FJ)

9 Careful Darrell. You're going to get yourself lumped in with the rest of us Meanies here pretty quick. Sean Penn is a Person! We need to respect him as such, despite who he's kissed.

Posted by: Desert Cat at March 11, 2008 07:16 PM (DIr0W)

10 I believe that would be "whom."

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 07:21 PM (hr1i5)

11 Kissing Madonna isn't his problem. Whatever he kissed on the Left is. Or sucked. Unlike Heidi Fleiss, I can't know for sure. I want Sean to live in peaceful anonymity so much, you wouldn't believe it. And silent anonymity as well.

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 07:27 PM (H79FJ)

12 Well, I'll grant you that there is an epidemic of loud-mouth disease among the H-wood/music industry crowd. I like what Brad Pitt said some years ago when he was asked about politics: "What are you asking me for? I'm a grown man who wears makeup."

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 07:39 PM (hr1i5)

13 If music and the arts are the counter-culture, how come they're not right leaning now? Or for the past fifty years.

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 07:48 PM (H79FJ)

14 That, my friend, is the $64,000 question.

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 09:52 PM (hr1i5)

15 Well, Attila, have you heard of the chickenhawk argument? It seems to be that you're using a modified form of it here. "Ooh, all guys who are soooo derogatory towards gals MUST be hunks and beefcake themselves". Um. No. I am reasonably good looking (and would be devastatingly handsome like my brother if I was his weight instead of about 75% heavier) but it won't matter if I was pug ugly. I can claim someone else to be pug ugly. Is Madonna hot? I don't know. I sure won't want to hit *that*, though. By Heaven, how many people have gone through it already?

Posted by: Gregory at March 11, 2008 10:34 PM (cjwF0)

16 Now, Gregory. Don't be silly. 1) The fallacy in the chickenhawk argument rests on the fact that in this country, civilian control of the military is the rule. We do not have governing juntas. The sexual marketplace, however, is . . . a market. Men, being visual creatures, have higher physical standards than women, who are either a) a whores, according to the most embittered of your brothers, or b) focused on things like brains, accomplishment, wisdom, etc., and not so damned superficial. Or: c) both. Women live with the double-standard out there (e.g., it's okay to have a paunch if you're male, but not if you're female), so long as they don't cross the "invisible line," and reiterate one too many times that they benefit from a physical-appeal double standard that would be impossible if we were as . . . visual as they. 2) As far as Madonna is concerned: a) the girl can afford the very best medical care, so I'm sure she's clean; b) I only said I wanted to make out with her, rather than go full-on, and c) you would sooooo hit it, if you had the chance. Don't lie to yourself.

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 11, 2008 10:49 PM (hr1i5)

17 No lie dear. Seriously. I don't begrudge you your fantasy, but I'd flee like the wind.

Posted by: Desert Cat at March 12, 2008 07:07 AM (B2X7i)

18 But, DC--that wasn't directed at you. You're extraordinarily "evolved," as they say. And you have discriminating tastes, I happen to know.

Posted by: Attila Girl at March 12, 2008 01:41 PM (hr1i5)

19 Hmm. Methinks Attila Girl has been over-imbibing on Valurite over at Ace's. Hey, leave some for me! 1. The fallacy of the chickenhawk is no more and no less than saying that someone *must* have gone through or was somehow involved in the same or similar experience before commenting on any situation/circumstance. Which is palpable nonsense. Unmarried virgin that I am, I should be able to make value judgements on both sex and marriage (I am all for both). Thin guys heap scorn on fatsos like me allatime. Hence, you were using a modified form of it. And anyways, while I'm cool with model-type bodies and all, a little bit of Bridget Jones Rubenesque body-style goes a long way, you know? I'm not saying I want the woman to weigh anywhere near what I do (we'd squish/squash each other), but certainly a certain... Victorian voluptuousness is more my type. Curves, flesh, and a little jiggle of fat in the right places... mmm.... donuts... 2. Well, if I gave my baser desires free reign, then yes, I'd hit her. I'd hit *you*, and I don't even know what you look like. I'd also hit Kim Devine, Patricia Araujo, Meghan Chevalier... look. Man's heart is a cesspool. Nothing clean emanates from a man; there is no one who is sinless, excepting Jesus. The reason we do not all degenerate is because we rein in our base desires, and adhere to certain standards. And by those standards, I wouldn't touch Madonna with a ten-foot pole. Not least amongst the reasons because she's married (at least, I think she's married, and doesn't one of your posts make that point also). But also, because of the way she acted in the past. And, she looks terrible from my perspective. Not sure I'd go as far as Gollum, though, even if the thought makes me giggle. Yes, giggle. I'm comfortable with my chosen sexuality. And manhood, for that matter.

Posted by: Gregory at March 13, 2008 08:27 PM (cjwF0)

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Both Karl and Dan Collins of Protein Wisdom had fun with Harper's's Horton, and his cries of selective prosecution.

Karl:

The law on “structuring" . . . would not be at all obscure to a bank, which was obligated to report suspicious activity to the IRS. Moreover, once this information was reported by ABC News, anyone can Google “structuring” and find it immediately. The feds were not on a politically-motivated fishing expedition—they got a report from a bank of suspicious activity requiring investigation.

Dan Collins explains that not only did the entire thing start with a tip from a bank, but (as he ironically notes): "so anxious was the DOJ to prosecute the guy that theyÂ’ve been driving the US Attorney bonkers," trying to get a signoff on an indictment of a public official.

Selective enforcement always scares me. But I'm not convinced that Spitzer was targeted because he was a Democrat; it seems more like his own arrogance and foolhardiness unraveled his career.

It's as if he were a rather disconnected version of William Jefferson Clinton—without, of course, Clinton's brilliance.

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1 Deposit and withdraw amounts from your bank just under the trigger limit (say $999 . and bad things might happen to you. That's why I stick to $89 or so. That and the fact that I don't see many $9998 checks.

Posted by: Darrell at March 11, 2008 11:31 AM (JW+3p)

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The Wall Street Journal had a nice recap of the Spitzer scandal today:

Mr. Spitzer's recklessness with the state's highest elected office, though, is of a piece with his consistent excesses as Attorney General from 1999 to 2006.

He routinely used the extraordinary threat of indicting entire firms, a financial death sentence, to force the dismissal of executives, such as AIG's Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. He routinely leaked to the press emails obtained with subpoena power to build public animosity against companies and executives. In the case of Mr. Greenberg, he went on national television to accuse the AIG founder of "illegal" behavior. Within the confines of the law itself, though, he never indicted Mr. Greenberg. Nor did he apologize.

In perhaps the incident most suggestive of Mr. Spitzer's lack of self-restraint, the then-Attorney General personally threatened John Whitehead after the former Goldman Sachs chief published an article on this page defending Mr. Greenberg. "I will be coming after you," Mr. Spitzer said, according to Mr. Whitehead's account. "You will pay the price. This is only the beginning, and you will pay dearly for what you have done."

Jack Welch, the former head of GE, said he was told to tell Ken Langone -- embroiled in Mr. Spitzer's investigation of former NYSE chairman Dick Grasso -- that the AG would "put a spike through Langone's heart." New York Congresswoman Sue Kelly, who clashed with Mr. Spitzer in 2003, had her office put out a statement that "the attorney general acted like a thug."

These are not merely acts of routine political rough-and-tumble. They were threats—some rhetorical, some acted upon—by one man with virtually unchecked legal powers.

Eliot Spitzer's self-destructive inability to recognize any limit on his compulsions was never more evident than his staff's enlistment of the New York State Police in a campaign to discredit the state's Senate Majority Leader, Joseph Bruno. On any level, it was nuts. Somehow, Team Spitzer thought they could get by with it. In the wake of that abusive fiasco, his public approval rating plunged.

Mr. Spitzer's dramatic fall yesterday began in the early afternoon with a posting on the Web site of the New York Times about the alleged link to prostitutes. The details in the criminal complaint about "Client-9," who is reported to be Mr. Spitzer, will now be played for titters by the press corps. But one may ask: Where were the media before this? With a few exceptions, the media were happy to prosper from his leaks and even applaud, rather than temper, the manifestly abusive instincts of a public official.

There really is nothing very satisfying about the rough justice being meted out to Eliot Spitzer. He came to embody a system that revels in the entertainment value of roguish figures who rise to power by destroying the careers of others, many of them innocent. Better still, when the targets are as presumably unsympathetic as Wall Street bankers and brokers.

Acts of crime deserve prosecution by the state. The people, in turn, deserve prosecutors and officials who understand the difference between the needs of the public good and the needs of unrestrained personalities who are given the honor of high office.

Read the whole thing.

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Another "go to" spot for hot memes: The Foundry, brought to you by The Heritage Foundation.

I just happened to see it there. On my sidebar. I'm not pimping them because they're an advertiser. Really. (Oh, wait. That was a lie. But I am bookmarking them, and I will be going back.)

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. . . immortalizes the Spitzer scandal:

(Tune: "Love Potion # 9")

I took my troubles to the Emperor's Club,
For understanding and a special rub.
They gave me a form and a questionnaire to sign,
And told me that my title was "Love Client # 9."

I said to Kristen: "I'm a fool for love,
And incidentally, I am not the gov.
I don't like corruption, except, of course, for mine,
And honey, please address me as 'Love Client # 9.'"

More at the link!

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I don't necessarily think the Spitzer prosecution was politically motivated; this is a sociopath's just desserts. But I am curious about Scott Horton's assertion in Harper's that the charges against Spitzer fall under the heading of "white slavery"; isn't that term often used to designate prostitution itself? The fact is, any law that's subject to selective enforcement should be reviewed—that is indeed, one of the problems with prostitution laws in the first place.

A governor of a powerful state, however, cannot be engaging in activity that opens him up to blackmail, and any elected official who doesn't recognize limits to his power is undermining democracy itself—no shit. Spitzer was, from all accounts, a tyrant of the kind that brings out the long knives —no mater what political party he or she belongs to. And thank goodness for those long knives, also known as "checks and balances."

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that is intolerable. For example, I smoke weed at parties—but if I'd made my career by enforcing the marijuana laws I don't agree with, I'd deserve to get busted at some point.

There is a distinction to be drawn between being an ordinary hypocrite—someone who believes in enforcing some sort of moral order, whether he/she can comply in every particular—and being the uberhypocrite who deserves a trouncing.

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And it's not funny!

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. . . would work themselves all the way down to my feet. But they don't, always.

"Do you have malaria?" A the H asks.

"I don't think so. Do you think it would help?" I kick the covers off of my midsection and onto my feet, propping another pillow over my face to block out the light. "I may need to go out and get some."

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