THE DRESDEN FILES Reading Challenge



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Thursday, November 17, 2011

McQUEARY IN FANTASYLAND

If there is any more sickening spectacle these days than the Penn State disaster I have yet to see it. The worst thing about it, of course, is Mike McQueary’s supremely pathetic attempts to paint himself as the “good guy” here.

Y’all all know the story, of course. You’d have to be DEAD not to know what’s happened in the last month.

Mr. McQueary was identified as a key witness in the ongoing Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Grand jury testimony alleged that Mr. McQueary reported first to his father and then to head coach Joe Paterno that he had witnessed Mr. Sandusky raping a 10 year old boy in a campus locker room; Mr.  McQueary first told his father about the incident, then the next day informed Paterno, and then ten days later informed other university officials. According to investigators, Mr. McQueary did what he was legally required to do, and was not implicated in any wrongdoing. He was criticized for not intervening to protect the boy from Mr. Sandusky, as well as for not reporting the incident to police himself.

On November 11, 2011, Penn State announced Mr. McQueary would not be serving as receivers coach in the final home game of the season due to threats against him. He was put on indefinite paid administrative leave. Later that day, The Patriot-News reported that Mr. McQueary told his receivers in a conference call that he would no longer be their coach.

Well, boo hoo. Excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for this man and his atrocious behaviour. But, WAIT – there’s worse to come.

According to NBC correspondent Peter Alexander, Mr. McQueary states categorically that he didn’t just walk away, as just about everyone who’s heard this story presumes. Mr. Alexander posted an e-mail from Mr. McQueary to his former teammates. In this, McQueary again categorically states that he wasn’t a moral coward:

“I did the right thing…you guys know me…
The truth is not out there fully…I didn’t just turn and run…I made sure it stopped…
I had to make quick tough decisions…
I did stop it, not physically ... but made sure it was stopped when I left that locker room.”

Mr. McQueary also wrote in one of the emails that he sent out to his former teammates and friends, "I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police.... no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds ... trust me." Mike McQueary told CBS's Armen Keteyian that the case has left him, "all over the place -- just kind of shaken ... like a snow globe." Standing on his front porch, Mr. McQueary said he couldn't say much to about the case itself, which has yet to reach trial. "This process has to play out," he told Keteyian. "I don't have anything else to say."

LIAR. Filthy, ROTTEN liar.

In all of this, Mr. McQueary apparently, and by his own admission, didn’t call the police, try to physically stop the rape, or even bother to check and see that the TEN YEAR OLD CHILD was physically OK. He goes on to say that he contacted police as well. The Morning Call, a newspaper in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, reports they obtained an e-mail Mr. McQueary wrote to a friend in which he claims to have taken more action than the grand jury report suggests. He "did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."

LIAR. Filthy, ROTTEN liar.

He didn’t report anything to anybody outside of the Penn State officials except his father.

Mike McQueary did not report his allegations of child sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky to the State College police department, Chief Tom King said Wednesday. Mr. McQueary, who was a graduate assistant at the time of the alleged incident, did not specify which police department he spoke to. Penn State has its own police force, and administrators are looking into whether Mr. McQueary made contact with that department. According to the grand jury report, Mr. McQueary left the locker room "immediately," was "distraught" and called his father. His father told him to leave the building and come to his home. Mr. McQueary did report the incident to his then-coach Joe Paterno the next day and later met with athletic director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business.

The State College police as well as the Penn State campus police, as I said earlier, are baffled by his claim that he told them about witnessing an alleged rape of a boy in 2002. Mr. McQueary has been at the center of the furor over the sex abuse scandal at the university, in part because the grand jury report states that after seeing Sandusky sexually assault a boy about 10, Mr. McQueary left without doing anything. The report said Mr. McQueary stated that he reported the incident to former head coach Joe Paterno the next day. The VERY next day, after he went boo-hooing to his daddy. The grand jury report also stated that no one at the school alerted police to the incident. It wasn't clear whether Mr. McQueary was referring to the campus police force or the force of the town of State College. Neither department has a record of Mr. McQueary bringing the rape accusation to them. "Right now, we have no record of any police report filed by Mike McQueary," said Lisa Powers, spokesperson for the university, in an email sent to ABC News today. "This is the first we have heard of it." 

Uh-huh. Dedicated spin cycle, anybody?

What’s the most interesting thing about this horrible story is just WHO in Penn State was responsible for telling the police – as well, of course, as Mr. McQueary. Gosh. I was stunned when I read it. The man that was responsible for running the campus police department and who was the official liaison to the town’s police department is none other than the man who was the then senior VP for finance and business: Gary Schultz. Yuppers, one of the men who is now charged with perjury. I guess, IF you want to be charitable, that Mr. McQueary did indeed tell the police. At least, he told the man that was in charge of the police. I guess that doing that would probably fulfill the soubriet "notifying the police."

Unfortunately, I’m not inclined to be charitable. Or polite, or nice, or give this lying SOB the benefit of the doubt. He’s doing the best damage control that he knows how to, because, after this, there is nobody anywhere in the world that is ever going to trust him or give him a job. I don’t just mean the schools, either: NOBODY is going to hire this man to even carry out the trash at a fast-food restaurant. He’s spent almost all of his working career in Academia, which is a very insular and a very sheltered place. He was a big noise at a large, important school, protected by one of the most powerful men in the world. No matter what, “Coach” Joe Pa was going to protect him. Now, he has NOTHING. No job, because Penn State is going to fire him. I don’t see that they’re going to have any choice in the matter. No prospects of any kind of a job, when this is all finished, because a coach or a teacher has just one thing to sell, and that’s her/his spotless reputation as well as her/his teaching skills – and he doesn’t have that any more, either.

I hope that he’s not married, because his family will be suffering right along with him. You know what the worst thing about Mr. McQueary’s personal situation is? I can’t think of anything more awful, at least. He is going to have to live the rest of his life KNOWING in the citadel of his inner-most self that he is a coward. He’s a moral coward, because he didn’t immediately call the police FROM THE LOCKER ROOM and have that monster arrested then and there. He’s a moral coward because he didn’t check on the child to see if he was hurt or needed medical attention. He is a moral and a physical coward because he didn’t physically STOP the rape. He’s now lying about calling the police, which means that he’s a situational ethicist – HIS situation and future were more important to him that the health and well-being of a physically abused little boy.

He’s going to have to live with all of that. For the rest of his life. He’s going to have to live with the sure and certain knowledge that every woman’s and man’s hand will be turned against him, and he’s going to have to live knowing that the scorn and disdain that he gets was well earned and completely deserved. He’s going to have to live with that while he rots in the stink of his own reflections.

I can’t think of a worse punishment.









WEASELS ON PARADE, EDITION #1, NOVEMBER 2011

Once again, it’s time to play WEASELS ON PARADE! (le sigh) So many, MANY weasels, so little time. So, without further ado, I give you this month’s first set of weasels.

WEASEL(S) OF THE WEEK #1: The Congressional “Super Committee. I can’t understand why anybody thought that this particular piece of bipartisan chuckle-headedness was a good idea. The Dems are trying, the RePubs/ReThugs are doing their best “NO” imitation, and nothing is going to get done before the deadline. On Aug. 2 of this year, with the nation on the brink of its first-ever default on the national debt, the option of punting the tough decisions to a “super committee” with a fixed deadline sure sounded like a good way out. But now, just eight days out, many lawmakers are signaling buyers’ remorse. Maybe they should have listened to former Senator Alan Simpson and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles. At least, those two fellas had good ideas.

WEASEL OF THE WEEK #2: Gloria “My husband respects women” Cain. It’s a given that any time a candidate or an electee gets caught in a lie, or gets into serious public trouble for something that he did in the past, said candidate/electee does serious photo-ops with his wife. David Vitter comes to mind, as does Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Clarence Thomas, and a host of others whose names escape me now. After all, how CAN the family values crowd explain away the whores that they’ve been caught with, the mistresses that they’ve (supposedly) paid off in return for silence, or the women that they’ve harassed and mistreated in the past? Why, by hiding behind the “little woman”, of course, who is publicly humiliated but who STILL stands by her man?

WEASEL OF THE WEEK, #3: Newt “WHAT Tiffany’s bill?” Gingrich. He’s a proven, public liar, and now he’s proved yet again that he’s a bully in public. This is the man who dumped wife #1 for a trophy wife, who divorced wife #2 when she was recovering from cancer surgery, who publicly excoriated President Clinton for having an affair while he was doing the same thing (at least he’s stayed married to this one, not that that’s something to brag about), who has stated publicly that anybody that took money from Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac ought to return said money, all the while that he was lobbying FOR Freddie Mac (to the tune of 1.6 million) over an 8 year period, and who is more of a weathervane even than Mitt Romney. I’ll give him credit for his intellectual firepower and that has great appeal to Republican voters looking for a "fighting conservative" who can stand up to Barack Obama, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go. He’s a jerk and a bully, and he’s proven that numerous times over the last 20 years.

WEASELS OF THE MONTH, #1: It’s a TWOFER, gangers! The Super Committee! See WEASEL(S) #1.

WEASEL OF THE MONTH, #2: District Judge Leslie Dutchot, who oversaw the bail hearing for Jerry Sandusky. Prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office had asked Dutchcot to impose $500,000 bail and require the 67-year-old Sandusky to wear an ankle bracelet during the Nov. 4 arraignment. Judge Dutchcot, a former Monroe County assistant district attorney, instead gave Sandusky $100,000 unsecured bail, meaning he didn’t have to put up money but just promise to appear in court, and did not require the monitoring. The general standard for recusal deals with the following requirement: if you have such a close relationship with someone that you could not be fair, you should recuse yourself. Judge Dutchot volunteered with Sandusky’s charity, and apparently was very fond of Mr. Sandusky. If that’s not a good reason to recuse yourself, I don’t know what WOULD be. Maybe like Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas and his wife?

WEASELS OF THE YEAR: All of the Penn State officials, from Mike McQueary to Joe Paterno, to Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier, who either knew or suspected that Jerry Sandusky was at the very least bullying little boys and at the very worst physically and sexually abusing them. All of these contemptible specimens of so-called men could have done something to stop this monster – and they did nothing. With the exception of Mr. McQueary, all of them have lost their jobs, and it damned well serves them right.

Gonna be an interesting year in politics, no? Who’s left to be the next flavour of the month in the GOP Presidential field? H’mmmm . . . nope, Rick Santorum won’t make it. Probably Dr. Ron Paul. ‘Course, that’s the truly insane leading the mostly insane.

What WOULD we all do for laughs without the GOP?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

SOMETHING’S HAPPENING HERE – AND WHAT IT IS, IS COMPLETELY CLEAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdEE6qUm060&feature=related (Buffalo Springfield, FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH)

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear (unfortunately, that isn’t true in this case)

What’s happening here is the violent showing of police repression. Yes, I agree that Zuccotti Park probably needed cleaning. So, set up some dumpsters and let the PROTESTORS clean up the place. They were already doing something like that, and all they needed was somebody to cart the trash off. They even had the money to RENT the dumpsters, fer cry-yi-yi! I do NOT agree that the level of police presence and the violence with which the occupiers were evicted was neither necessary nor was it appropriate.

There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

The FACT that the evictions in Oakland, Portland, Houston and New York all took place at about the same time does NOT make me a paranoid – but it does speak to the fear that the Establishment politicians are living with. The longer a politician, or a policeperson, is in a position of authority and power, the more inclined they are to actively support the status quo. Because that status quo means that their power and authority stays in force and grows stronger. Orchestrating the evictions so that they all took place at about the same time on three different coasts shows that The Establishment is a lot more dialed into what is happening, and a lot more fearful of what MIGHT happen than even I thought.


I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Quan, Mayor Parker: Do not make the mistake of assuming that evicting protestors is going to shut them up. On the contrary, it makes us ALL more vocal. It also gets people that wouldn’t otherwise be inclined to participate out of their comfortable chairs and out in the streets. Remember, this country was founded by contrarians – and contrarian behaviours are programmed into ALL American citizens, born and adopted, on the genetic level.


Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

The kids that are the majority of the protestors are the grandsons and granddaughters of those of us that marched with Dr. King, and marched in protest of the Vietnam war. They are putting their bodies and their convictions RIGHT out there, in public, and I am proud of them. Remember that I wrote about our “American Winter” last year. The OCCUPY WALL STREET protest is in the process of evolving from a movement to a revolution. The difference between the two? It’s simple. A movement goes a certain distance and then stops. A revolution never stops.

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

The non-violent behaviours of the OCCUPY protestors has been exemplary. The violent reactions of the police and the political structure has been shameful. The panic and the fear of The Establishment is very clear. There’s already been blood, and there’s going to be a lot more before this is finished.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

Not THIS time, gangers. Remember the Arab Spring? Too many cell phones with cameras, too many iPads – and the bright light of day took the dictators down. Eventually, this always happens.

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down


Copyright, Buffalo Springfield , 1967

Monday, November 7, 2011

OOOOOOOOOOOooooo, THOSE ZANY HETEROS!

I’ve lived in the same house in the same neighborhood for over 14 years. It took me 10 of those years to prove to the rest of the neighbors that I wasn’t a panting pervert, slobbering to pounce on and molest young children. That’s why I am finding it absolutely incomprehensible that 4 self-identified heterosexual men have ALLEGEDLY done what they’ve been accused of over the weekend. One molester, and three moral cowards who either ignored the molestation or who swept it under the rug.

Most of you who either know me or who read what I write on a regular basis are very much aware that I’m gay, I’m out and I’m proud of BEING out. I and WonderWife – and a host of other GLBT folks of our generation – lived the Great Masquerade. That was a condition of life where we, basically, lived an out and out lie for most of our lives. That lie was that we were heterosexuals just like “everybody else” around us. There were then (and still are now, in various places in the world) very compelling reasons for this; the two most important ones were (and are still, in some cases), to insure our own physical safety as far as we could, and to be allowed to keep our families, both our birth families and our children. There are other reasons, but these two are paramount.

There have been far too many episodes of bullying, mostly, in these days of children who are perceived as being GLBT, and I am whole-heartedly in favour of Dan Savage’s IT GETS BETTER PROJECT (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/). However, that doesn’t address what I am speaking to at this point. That’s a column for another day.

Over the weekend, one of the former coaches at Penn State was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexually inappropriate behaviour with male children.YOUNG male children. Young male children 10 years old and younger. This monster self-identifies as heterosexual. The two men that covered up his abominable behaviour self-identify as heterosexuals. Joe Paterno self-identifies as heterosexual.

On Saturday, Jerry Sandusky, 67, was charged by a State of Pennsylvania grand jury with myriad counts of deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and other offenses after a three-year state police investigation.  The first incident was reported to Mr. Paterno happened in 2002, while he was an assistant coach at Penn State, working with Joe Paterno.– NINE YEARS AGO – and involved an “incident” in the showers between Mr. Sandusky and a 10 year old boy. That’s a TEN YEAR OLD CHILD.

Mr. Paterno made a statement over the weekend, and his words are truly appalling: “As my grand jury testimony stated, I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker room facility,” Paterno’s statement read. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report. Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

In other words, he passed the buck up the food chain and forgot about it. His excuse? Coach Sandusky was retired “at the time”. No follow-up, no worries about what happened on his watch: just pass it on up the line and fergedaboudid.

The two school officials who were the ones that were charged with investigating the alleged inappropriate behaviors were the AD Tim Curley and Penn State vice president Gary Schultz; both were also charged with failure to report the abuse of a child and perjury for claiming they were not told of “sexual acts” by the graduate assistant, who the Harrisburg Patriot-News has identified as current Penn State assistant Mike McQueary. Both of them basically swept the entire business under the carpet and then lied about it. Both of them have resigned and are the focus of a grand jury probe. Mr. Paterno, as I said, did what was protocol: he passed the information on and forgot about it. Mr. Curleys' and Mr. Schultzs’ reactions were to band Mr. Sandusky from the campus, whether alone or in the company of little boys. Nothing came of the 2002 incident and Sandusky was allowed to live free for another 9½ years, where he went on to abuse more victims.

I won’t even go into Joe Paterno’s pathetic excuses. Pennsylvania law asks employees to pass the information up their chain of command, where it fell on Curley to tell authorities. However, Mr. Paterno is no normal middle manager. He is a powerful and iconic figure across the state and Mr. Curley worked as much for him as he did for Mr. Curley. Mr. Paterno also built his reputation as much for his moral compass and NCAA compliance as his 409 career victories in his five-plus decade career as head coach at Penn State. Mr. Paterno has always been about doing more than the letter of the law – at least, while he’s talking.

How could he possibly agree that there was concern that something inappropriate may have occurred between an old man and a young boy in the shower of what should’ve been a closed locker room yet apparently believe the information wasn’t inappropriate enough to call the cops himself? Yah, I can hear you all saying out there, “Well, he really wasn’t legally obligated to do more than that, so what’s the problem?”

The problem is that Joe Paterno, for years and YEARS, has held himself to a standard (at least in public) that he cares for children, cares for his football players and that he and his wife really, REALLY care what happens to children. Well, gangers, what he did in the past has, unfortunately for Mr. Paterno, is that the only thing that he really cares about is being head football coach of Penn State. IF he had truly cared about either the allegations or the welfare of the child, he would have – and SHOULD have – done more than just kick the problem up the food chain. Even 10 years ago, this man wielded the power to make everybody sit up and take notice.

What’s done, unfortunately, is done. What make me sick, and will continue to make me sick, is the FACT that a bunch of self-identified HETEROSEXUAL MEN were informed about a self-identified HETEROSEXUAL man possibly abusing children, and did nothing.

They did nothing.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

WEASEL (SINGULAR) ON PARADE

I am getting SO very sick and tired of all the tragic-comic dramedy surrounding Herman Cain. It’s reminding me of all the garbage that surrounded Gary Hart when he sneered at the media and taunted them with “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!” regarding his affair with Donna Rice. It’s also reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s assertions that he “never had sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski.” John Edwards also comes to mind. What do all of these sleazes have in common? They all lied, to one degree or another, about sexual misconduct.

So, therefore, today there’s only one weasel on parade. Herman “PIZZAMAN” Cain.

Herman Cain. Y’know, I really wanted to like this man. When his name was first mentioned as a possible candidate, I made the comment on Twitter that he’d probably wind up the Republican/Tea Party candidate for President. I got laughed, and several of my politically active friends suggested that I needed to get my meds adjusted (NO, I haven’t told any of them “I TOLD YOU SO!”, although I was tempted).

He’s a self-made man, with a terrific business sense and background. He took Godfather’s Pizza from bankruptcy to financial health, when everybody told him that the chain wasn’t savable. He went on to have a pretty stellar career in the food industry, rising to the chairmanship of the National Restaurant Association. He’s been married to the same woman for 40+ years. He’s a stellar example of what a person can do when she/he puts her/his mind to the task at hand. True, some of his policy positions are pretty out there, but then theory is usually demolished and tempered by reality. The 9-9-9 plan, for example, isn’t something that would work in the real world, although a flat tax across the board is a pretty good idea.

So, this tempest that has blown up around Mr. Cain since he prevaricated about whether or not he sexually harassed 2 women with whom the NRA settled out of court. First, it didn’t happen, then he recused himself from the “agreement”, then it was an agreement, not a settlement, then it was a settlement, but he couldn’t remember the women or the details, and now it’s all the fault of the Perry campaign that his shenanigans were made public in the first place.

I get it, folks – really, I do. No man in public life these days ever wants something as nasty as sexual harassment to become public knowledge, after all. Sexual harassment is pretty egregious behaviour, after all, and taints everybody’s reaction to the person that just accused of doing it, let alone somebody whose behaviour resulted in not one but TWO settlements. In the case of the first woman, lawyer Joel Bennett told The New York Times that his client wants to release a statement asserting that her version of events is different from Cain’s, while not violating her confidentiality agreement with the restaurant group.

Even if one of the accusers does step forward publicly, Mr. Cain may well believe he can withstand the firestorm. After all, former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton withstood multiple, named allegations of sexual misconduct and became president. He also survived impeachment and finished his second term, despite the Lewinsky sex scandal. His campaign says that since Sunday, when the harassment story broke on Politico.com, fundraising has soared – a sign, the campaign says, that his supporters are sticking by him.

Maybe they are; also, maybe they aren’t going to stick around for the long haul, either.

“Politicians are always the last to know that they have been irretrievably damaged,” says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He argues that Cain was never going to be the nominee in any case, but the harassment allegations have made that possibility even more remoter. Jillson also doesn’t think that Cain will be able to maintain his support over the long haul. “The first reaction of Republican social conservatives in general is that ‘this is unproven, they’re after our guy, so we’ll suspend judgment,’ ” Jillson says. “But I think that erodes. The facts will out at some point. These things never go away.” If Mr. Cain is looking to former President Clinton as a model for how to survive sexual allegations, the more relevant model would be Clinton the candidate. But even there, Mr. Cain is no Clinton. The former president had a career in elective office before running for president. Mr. Cain has none. President Clinton also had a fully organized campaign in place by the time Gennifer Flowers stepped forward with allegations of a long-running affair with then-Governor Clinton. Mr. Cain barely has a campaign apparatus, and has campaigned infrequently in the early primary and caucus states. His response to the sexual harassment story has been disorganized and ever-changing, even though he had 10 days’ advance warning it was in the works. Mr. Cain’s appeal to some Republican voters is precisely the fact that he is a nonpolitician and an outsider.

The problem for Mr. Cain, alas, is that the stories keep coming. On Wednesday, his campaign manager, Mark Block, blamed the rival campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for leaking the story to Politico. The Cain campaign blames Perry adviser Curt Anderson, who advised Cain’s unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2004. Cain says he told Mr. Anderson about the sexual-harassment charges from his days at the restaurant association, but Mr. Anderson says he had no prior knowledge of the situation. "I didn’t know anything about this, and so it’s hard to leak something that you didn’t know anything about,” Mr. Anderson said on CNN Thursday morning. Governor Perry has denied that anyone in his campaign was involved in leaking the accusations. Earlier, Mr. Cain had blamed the liberal media for going after him, in addition to the GOP establishment.


And THAT, dear readers, is what makes him a weasel. When you know you’re in the wrong, and you’ve already been caught lying about it, start the “BLAME GAME”. After all, it’s not *YOUR* fault if some ugly women took remarks that you made regarding her physical attractiveness as harassment. It’s not *YOUR* fault if inviting said woman to your corporate apartment could be construed by said women as a serious pass. It’s not *YOUR* fault if they take issue with your repeated passes and your apparent inability to take NO for an answer and report you. Gosh, what on EARTH did you do wrong? Aside, of course, from trying to bully lower-level staff into your bed.

Mr. Cain might yet weather this storm. I hope not. I sincerely do. If he’s willing to blame poor people for being poor because they are lazy, and tell the world that the only reason people are jobless and homeless is because they aren’t trying hard enough, then we truly don’t need him in the Oval Office. If he’s willing to lie about things that he’s done in the past, then this country doesn’t need him anywhere close to the White House.

We get the leadership that we deserve, most of the time. I just have a hard time seeing Herman Cain – or, for that matter, Mitt the Weathervane – in the White House.

Watch out for flying chairs, gangers. This one has gotten very ugly, and will be uglier still before it’s all over.