Signs and Portents

"I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did."

Clarence Thomas's wife characterized her Saturday morning phone call to Anita Hill's office as an olive branch, but it sounds more like a threat--or like someone was dialing while drunk. I'm thinking that maybe Ginni Thomas, under critical scrutiny in the press for her Tea Party activities, has been feeling sorry for herself; maybe she's been channeling some of her husband's delusions of martyrdom. But even so....The mind fairly boggles.An Ohio Tea Party candidate for US Congress enjoys dressing up like a Nazi (Waffen SS, no less); in Alaska an irascible blogger is handcuffed and retained by one of Sarah Palin's endorsees' hired goons. In Kentucky, the Democratic candidate for the Senate takes to the air to accuse Rand Paul of worshiping false idols.All this puts me in mind of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's phrase "defining deviancy down." It almost makes Lyndon LaRouche seem sane and dignified.