Fresh Loaf

You wouldn’t expect someone so pretty to be capable of such scurrilous behavior.

At this point, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate is a footnote, an also-ran, but I can’t help reading these train-wreck stories about the fallout of his covered-up affair with a bat-shit-crazy New Age videographer.

On Saturday, the NYT ran an article that describes, in excruciating detail, Edwards’ continuing free-fall from grace:

A federal grand jury in nearby Raleigh is investigating whether any crimes were committed in connection with campaign laws in an effort to conceal his extramarital affair with a woman named Rielle Hunter.

At the same time, Mr. Edwards is moving toward an abrupt reversal in his public posture; associates said in interviews that he is considering declaring that he is the father of Ms. Hunter’s 19-month-old daughter, something that he once flatly asserted in a television interview was not possible.

Ouch. Other tidbits alleged in the article:

• Edwards talked a married campaign aide into claiming (unconvincingly, I might add) that he had fathered Hunter’s kid
• Edwards promised to marry Hunter in a rooftop ceremony — with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band — once his wife, Elizabeth, had died of cancer
• Edwards asked a wealthy donor if he could find a doctor who would falsify a DNA report

OK, I’m gonna need a shower if I continue. Read the rest yourself if you can stomach it.

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That's Senator Smalley to you

You watched him on “Saturday Night Live.” You listened to him on Air America. You loved him in Stuart Saves His Family. OK, maybe not that last one.

But now comedian-turned-liberal-pundit-turned-politician Al Franken is finally going to join the U.S. Senate. Everyone knew he’d won the race months ago, but incumbent Norm “Douchebag” Coleman had been hanging on the seat by his fingernails.

Well, the NYT has just reported that the Minnesota Supreme Court today returned a unanimous verdict in Franken’s favor and that Coleman has conceded. It only took him seven months.

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Say what you will about the American system of government — the cozy relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists, ineffective campaign finance laws, politicians’ questionable perks, etc. — but, compared to other Western countries, our system is  surprisingly open (notwithstanding the executive obfuscations of the Bush Administration).

I was reminded of this on a vacation last week in England, where the media is ablaze with articles about the biggest political scandal in a generation. The Daily Telegraph, an otherwise conservative newspaper, got the scoop: Ministers of Parliament, or MPs, had been using their expense accounts — taxpayer money, mind you — to pay for such dubious items as a moat-cleaning for a country manse, an electrical massage chair and a $2,600 duck house for a private lake.

Apparently, MPs can get reimbursed for living expenses, such as rent on a flat in London if their district is elsewhere. But the media revelations have exposed a system that was consistently abused. Some of the improprieties involved extravagances that should not have put on the public tab. Others were clear instances of cheating — rent for property that had been sublet, hiring family members and claiming homes that had already been sold.

A number of MPs have already stepped down, including — for the first time in three centuries — the Speaker of the House of Commons. It’s all very amusing to read about. But the point is that British politicians were allowed to get away with all of this for years — the improper expenses are all at least four years old — because England doesn’t have the kind of sunshine laws we enjoy here.

(more…)

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