The Jerk Store called, they're running low on mass-murderers and hypocrites

(That's a Seinfeld reference, Mom. Seinfeld was a popular 1990's television show.)

It is a gorgeous day in our Nation's Capitol today, sunny, 60 degrees, getting up to 70 later on....it's so nice out I think I'm going to stroll down to my office and start trying to catch up on the mountains of work I've been neglecting this week. I shudder to think what awaits me, but hopefully the quiet of a Saturday afternoon will make it a little more bearable.

But because it's the office, I must procrastinate as long as possible, hence a quick update.

Two things from today's paper which caught my attention: one, Slobodan Milosevic has made a big splash on day one of NFL Free Agency by turning up dead. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, Slobodan amigo you got off lucky.

Second, this story about made me fall off the couch. Claude Allen was the point man at the White House for a wide range of domestic policy campaigns that I find, well, dumb, and generally had a long history of being a self-righteous a**hole who found himself in a position to affect massive amounts of domestic spending on various ideological crusades. Before the White House he was a senior political appointee at HHS, where he was the guy who had the CDC remove all mention of safe-sex materials from its website, and vigorously went after wacky AIDS-advocacy organizations that suggested using condoms might help prevent infection, because Mr. #1 Target customer apparently knows better than medical professionals how to combat disease. I would love to hear his insights on cancer. Maybe he could help me with my Rituxan bills.

He was also among the leading advocates within the Administration for the quintipling (or whatever) of federal funding for abstinence-only education (which doesn't work, and has never seemed to work, say my communist friends who deal in trivialities like facts). I don't claim to be an expert on abstinence-only, but Christopher is, and as such Christopher dealt with Allen here and there. His impressions were not favorable, but damn, who would expect the guy to be a petty criminal? Unbelievable.

He was even nominated by the President to be a Federal Judge on the 4th Circuit in 2003, though those damn Democrats in the Senate asked too many questions ("Has he broken many laws lately...?") and his nomination was withdrawn. For Heaven's sake, where do they find these guys?

I know, before I go too over the moon with schadenfreude (it's not like he shot a guy in the face and neck with a shotgun, right?), it's obviously very sad that such a succesful and I'm sure well-respected individual within his community would have such issues that he would feel above paying for his purchases like normal folk. The guy needs some help. For he and his family's sake I hope he gets it, and, should that help arrive in prison, I hope he thanks his lucky stars that this great nation has a public health infrastructure committed to helping people who need it, despite his best efforts.

Jerk. He's the reason we all have to wait in those stupid lines to have our receipts checked at Target.

Gale Norton also resigned this week, but that of course has nothing to do with the years of rampant impropriety at the Interior Department involving Casino Jack Abramoff and his boys. I don't really have much to say about that....but of course Gale knew nothing about the shenanigans being carried out under her watch. Of course not. Everyone in this Administration is squeaky clean.