Perjury

Another week another powerful democrat is under fire on charges of inappropriate sexual conduct. This time the target is Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick is charged with the ubiquitous charge of “perjury” stemming from an alleged cover-up of a romantic affair with a co-worker. Like disgraced New York City Mayor Eliot Spitzer Kilpatrick is considered a rising star within the Democratic party.

Could it be just a coincidence that these powerful democratic figures are being charged by administration-appointed prosecutors during the death throes of the Bush regime? Or is this a final cynical ploy on the part of the RNC to take out as many powerful democrats as possible as their own party crumbles after nearly two decades in power. If these are really politically motivated prosecutions I suppose the good news is that even the republicans aren’t convinced they can retain power during the next election.

I don’t know who to vote for this next go around but I know I am not voting for a continuation of the current policies because, from my simplistic point of view, they are not working very well. People say voting for Barack Obama is like rolling the dice but at this point I’m thinking “give me the damn dice!”

Hillary Melt-Down

The horror! The horror! In an incredible moment of hubris and incompetence Hillary Clinton has apparently completely fabricated an event in Bosnia that was meant to bolster her foreign policy experience. She claimed to have been dodging bullets on the tarmac after landing. It is a harrowing story but unfortunately it is completely false! Apparently Sinbad, the c-list comedian, outed the former first lady when he stated that the only thing he was scared of while on the same trip was where the next meal was coming from. It is never good when Sinbad is able to refute your story and in this case the damage could be insurmountable.

In about the only come-back available to her Clinton claimed she mad a mistake and that it showed she was human, which she added would be a revelation to some people. I personally think its too late to play that card but Clinton’s campaign has been in damage control (and some might say “damage affliction”) for the past couple of months and it is starting to look more and more like free-fall.

Politics is a Gross Game

Politics is one of the awful insidious toxins. I am a certified politics junkie. I can’t stand it and I can’t stay away from it. I know its toxic but I wallow in the slime anyway. I can’t help myself – maybe there will be a new rehab for my type someday. Imagine the meetings – oh my god.

Whoops, Our Bad!

Wow – now I’m reading that we “mistakenly” sent four electrical fuses to Taiwan that are manufactured to trigger the Minuteman strategic nuclear missile. This sounds like a leak to me – probably with the intention of letting China know that Taiwan may or may not have nuclear material.

Holy crap – to cap this thoroughly depressing run-down of the week’s politics it turns out that nearly 1 in 10 Ohioans are currently receiving food-stamps from the government.

The Tonya Harding Strategy

One politico has labeled Hillary’s only hope of taking out Barack Obama the “Tonya Harding Strategy.” It involves destroying Obama thoroughly, portraying him as an absolutely unacceptable candidate. The politico extends the analogy to include the fact that the tactic will destroy both candidates in the Presidential election – neither candidate would “get the gold.” Is Hillary willing to go to these extremes to win?

Have politics gotten to that point where the candidates on both sides are willing to sacrifice the good of the country for the good of their own party, ideology, and egos? Or maybe its always been this way. Personally I think we’ve reached a new and troubling low with the Bush administration’s willingness to play fast and loose with the letter of the law. They have demonstrated that no ethic is immutable when it comes to achieving their ambitions.

Hopefully whomever takes over control of the White House understands just how far we have started down that precarious slippery slope and pulls us back. We will need to tighten up restrictions on power for a time – put some handcuffs on whomever is sitting in the Oval Office. Things are out of control now but the beauty of our political system is that, as long as we do not succumb to complacency, things can change very rapidly.