Rarely have I seen a Republican so theatrically feckless since the earlier, better seasons of The West Wing. And that was, ostensibly, fiction. And certainly overwritten.

Whereas this face-off between Senators Kyl and Kerry on David Gregory's show should leave hour-long dramedy writers chartreuse with envy. I think JK demanding "What does Britney Spears have to do with healthcare?" may have to become my new ring tone. If only it had happened during the writer's strike!

I wonder if JK's fire and, let's come out and say it, his prickliness, was all about the stupid attack ads coming from the general direction of the low road express, or if his TMZ cameo rankles the good senator as much as it does me.

We may never know the answer, so let me ask another question: do these incidents have anything in common?

I'm going to come right out an say that my heart just aches for those poor girls. Yes, they should have been more careful about what they were photographed doing, but, since "Drunk people see famous guy, request picture," is a dull headline, they have become the true victims of a media that will go to any lengths to embarrass a public figure.

I can't even feel badly for the senator, because he has an office that can work to fix these things when they happen - or don't happen, as is pretty much the case here. Most 20-year-olds don't have a spokesman to point out that being photographed holding a can of beer doesn't make her trashy, or slutty, or any of the other labels TMZ and similar sites like paste onto females having a good time.

It's interesting and kind of sad that the incident occurred the same week that the McCain campaign aired its stupidass ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Now, I'm no fan of either of these ladies, but I do feel sorry for them from time to time. They didn't, after all, create a media in which a woman has to go without underwear to get attention. The commodification of the female hardly began with either one of them.

Now, do they suck for their part in perpetuating what they help to perpetuate? Yes, actually, but that is a different post. Comparing Barack Obama to these women is like comparing apples and giraffes, because fame takes many forms. Hilton and Spears are who they "are" in the media, because the media has assigned a huge market value to anything they do, whether it's good behavior or bad.

But in Barack Obama, I think we as Americans have found something really special. Not just as a candidate, but as a public figure who is being widely celebrated for having lived a life of accomplishment - and pretty honorably, to boot! If following John Kerry's career has taught me anything, it's that bad behavior is too often rewarded in politics, while good behavior can be turned rapidly into a liability.

If Obama is offering us a chance to break away from that silly paradox, I'm glad millions of people are watching intently while he does it.

at some point, during the media's years-long lovefest with John McCain, some reporter would wake up in a cold sweat, and ask, "Oh, my God! Am I dating John Kerry's ex?"

And now, the race to paint JK as scorned senator - never mind the actual crap McCain has pulled ever since his perfunctory denouncement of the SBVT in 2004.

I don't want to make too much of this, because, actually, I have very little interest in the friendship between Senators Kerry and McCain - maybe because, unlike the rest of America, I have very little interest in John McCain. I've never been able to get too worked up about the notion of McCain as JK's VP, and we've certainly never gotten any satisfyingly enlightening info about whether or not that was a possibility. Which is fine - these two are entitled to their private conversations.

I just want to point out, though, that the constant dragging of McCain's name into the '04 race had little to do with his friendship with the Democratic nominee, and everything to do with the MSM's love of typing the letters "M-C-C-A-I-N" over and over again.

The MSM has a similar affinity for the letters "C-L-I-N-T-O-N," which was also conspicuous back in '04, and one wonders what purpose that actually served. (Or maybe one doesn't. I do. I, personally, wonder: what purpose did 4 years of Hillary chatter serve?)

So, yeah. Rather than come to JK's defense here - because I think, in spite of his making some points that I think ought to have been made, this is a non-story - I should ask, "why is this personal?" Why is John McCain's bad judgment with regards to the troops in Iraq - remember them? - being placed into the context of some Senate soap opera?

If I stop being friends with somebody because they torture kittens, it's not to rouse up some level of interest in me. It's about the kittens.

Let's try to keep our focus on the kittens, people.

Bloggers of the world:

Let's all take a moment to figure out how to be more like Reb Akiva at Mystical Paths, who, after spotting one tall and unmistakable senator outside of Petra Souvenirs and Money Change in Jerusalem, not only posted about it, but posted a picture, AND reported "Mr. Kerry was wearing his traditional powder blue shirt and pink-ish tie, as was his senate staffer."

Ok, that? Is important information. Well done, Reb Akiva, and hat tip to beachmom, who found this before I did. You made some American fangirls very happy today.

I'm not going to argue that every blogger in every corner of the universe ought to stop posting pictures of their children/lolcats/socks/weird food from 50's magazines/etc. in favor of daily candids of a pink-ish tie-clad John Kerry followed by slobbery descriptions of any animals or small watercraft depicted on said pink-ish tie.

But, if you see the tall guy, will you for frak's sake let me know? It really will not compromise the quality or readability of welovechildrenlolcatssockandweirdfoodfrom50smagazines.com. Trust me.

Kerry On, wherever you are,
democrafty