Gov. Sanfrod (R-SC). Not resigned. Hetero  affair.

Sen. Ensign (R-NV). Not resigned. Hetero affair.

Gov. Blagojevich (D-IL). Impeached and removed by Democratic Legislature. Corruption.

Gov. Spitzer (D-NY). Resigned. Hetero hookers.

Sen. Craig (R-ID). Didn’t resign. Homo hookers.

Sen. Vitter (R-LA). Didn’t resign. Hetero hookers.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL). Resigned. Homo hookers.

…

Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA). Resigned. Affair.

Speaker Bob Livingston (R-LA). Resigned. Affair.

Pres. Bill Clinton (D). Impeached by Republican Congress.

My guess is that the Republicans are still so mad that Clinton didn’t resign that their unwillingness to resign in the face of these scandals stems from that. Of course, they don’ see the difference: Clinton never ran on a platform of Holier than thou. He never politicized morality. This was often cited as a failure of his, if not in fact a cause, of his own transgressions. We knew Bill Clinton was a ladies’ man before he was ever elected President.

Just like the coverup is worse than the crime, the hypocrisy is also worse than the crime. Livingston and Gingrich couldn’t lead the opposition against Clinton when they were fucking around too. Spitzer couldn’t be tough on crime when he was breaking the law with hookers. Blagojevich was just nuts—but his own party took him down, no one circled the wagons around him.

I don’t care that Sanford screwed another woman. I don’t even really care that he did so after being a typical Bible thumping southern politician. I don’t really care about him because I don’t live in South Carolina. But if I did live there, I’m not sure I could get past the 4-5 day disappearance. I don’t know if that matters there or not. I’ll just say that now would not be a good time for Arnold to leave California for 4 days without any contact, and that’s all I can really say.

At least it was with a woman… again. The Republicans continue to become a parody of themselves, like the last seasons of a sitcom grown stale.

Anyhow, at least Spitzer’s wife stood beside him and at least he wasn’t a total pussy at his press conference like Sanford was.

Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has bowed out of the gubernatorial election. Smart man. Why would he want the worst job in government? I think this essentially destroys Gavin Newsom’s chances, because he’s not well known in Southern California, and, like Villaraigosa, has a few of his own issues.

I think this makes it a safe bet that Brown wins the primary and the general. The state GOP will be too likely to put forward a too-far-to-the-right candidate because they feel burned by Schwarzenegger. The result will be someone not palatable to most Californians.

Politically, I think this is actually one of the least significant aspects of the 2010 election. If, and only if, there are 2/3 majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, and if, and only if, significant Constitutional reform is undertaken will this situation be timely remedied or recurrences prevented.

Chances are the real tumult will happen in the 2012 elections when the Legislative districts will be redrawn using a new process.

It sure sounds like health care reform is going to be so watered down that it won’t mean anything. Depending on which of today’s polls you believe, there is either 76% or 83% in favor of a public option. Is there ever that much support on anything? And yet there are only 37 senators on record supporting the public option. There needs to be 50 (it’s a reconciliation bill).

The Minnesota Supreme Court is supposed to rule tomorrow. If this mean Franken gets seated, that may change the dynamics in Washington, because—theoretically—Republicans will lose the power to block anything. If the Dems are smart enough to use that as a stick, then maybe something will get done on health care.

What I can’t understand is what the Dem strategy is here. They will own the bill no matter what. Who cares if it has a single Republican vote? If the Republicans water it down and then vote against it they can have it both ways. Obama will own it too, so he should start to speak up.

At least his affair was with a woman.

I have always maintained a less than dovish position on Iran. When we invaded Iraq, I lamented that it weakened our ability to deal with the Iranian regime. While I certainly am not in favor of the proposed Israeli strike to “take out” Iran’s nuclear capability (which would be counterproductive and would probably fail anyway), there is no disputing that the Iranian regime supports terrorism and, now, in case it wasn’t plain before, suppresses its own people—violently.

The problem with so much of the anti-Iranian rhetoric, like with much of the crap we spew, is that it doesn’t seem to differentiate between the people who are the problem—in this case, Achmadinejad and the mullahs—and the individual Iranians, who, of course, want a better life.

I don’t know what the US can do, or what we have the credibility to do. I’m sure our Sunni allies don’t mind seeing Iran implode, and I’m sure people in Israel and our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t mind seeing that regime weakened. I sure don’t. But there is an opportunity here to bring about in Iran what we used to talk about in Iraq—democracy. I just don’t think it’s America’s opportunity.

Also, I’m resistant to the cult of personality surrounding Mousavi. He’s better than the current crop. But this is about the people of Iran and their hopes, not any one leader. I wish them the best.

But for the most part, it seems like even those guilty of succumbing to BlackBerry’s pull toward constant communication, like Emily and Inci admit to being, realize and feel guilty about their breach of etiquette. The hazier question, I’ve found, is what’s appropriate regarding smartphones’ pull toward constant information. Too many conversations in the past year have been cut off by someone deftly tapping an iPhone or BlackBerry under the table, and pronouncing the “answer” to whatever it is we were discussing. I’m all for research and fact-finding, but I miss the days when you could spend half an hour speculating on the origin of “OK” (a president writing “oll korrect” in the margin? A word stolen from some other language?

This is from Double XX, which is like the WNBA of Slate. Essentially, it’s a breach of etiquette to use your Blackberry because people too dumb to figure them out don’t realize the convenience, and often times are in a place in their lives where they are free from a digital leash that many hard working people have by necessity. And then the complaint that it settles stupid speculative conversations too quick?

“Etiquette” is really about power relationships, of course. People complaining about it usually sound a touch Napoleonic to me.

Just remember: someone was paid to write that, and they wonder why blogs are popular. Ugh.

Prediction:

If Achmadinezhad wins the neocons will say, see, we have to deal with this guy.

If Achmadinezhad loses the neocons will say, see, our sabre rattling and credible threats forced regime change.

No matter what happens, they are right.

For everyone out there ready to give you a lecture on economics and the free market, there is a person that will talk about government debt as if it was AIDS. Bob Reich has an article on the subject today. Here’s the salient point for water cooler conversations:

Deficit and debt numbers mean nothing in and of themselves. They take on meaning only in relation to something else. And the most important something else, in terms of deciding whether the nation can afford such deficits or debts, is the size of the national economy.

In other words, if you destroy the economy by raising taxes or cutting spending in a contraction, you’re always going to increase the deficit. If on the other hand, you do some stimulative spending and grow the economy, the economy’s capacity to repay the debt will increase instead of decline, and, in the not-so-long run, everything is better off.

Despite this being well known to anyone who has actually studied economics, you still hear tired tropes about the government needing to run itself like a business (which is fatuous: businesses use debt—you know, bonds—to finance expansions all the time) and not spend more than they take in. Sometimes you hear it put “like my family.” How many families don’t use credit cards, student loans, or home equity lines?

Balanced budgets are ideal whenever monetary expansion and contraction are effective. In case you haven’t noticed, the Fed bottomed out their rate a while ago and things are still in a crash. Stimulative spending is the prescription. Washington seemed to have understood that until health care reform came up.

Too bad they have no idea how this works in Sacramento.