Thursday, February 21, 2008

Dirt



Ever see it? FX original with Courtney Cox? It's the story of a Hollywood tabloid magazine and all the sleazy denizens that surround the glitz and glamour of LA. Like all the FX originals, great writing and great character development, gets you past the boundary-pushing sex, drugs, language that would be gratuitous if not done with a gritty sense of reality. Rated "Mature" for a reason. Good stuff.



Anyway, the McCain affair story is blasting all over the television this morning, and it reminded me of the show "Dirt". Sweetheart deals with lobbyists should be a concern. The fact that it takes a whispered extra-marital affair to get it noticed tells a lot of the mindset of the electorate.




Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.



Hillary's tears. (spare me.) Obama's "plagiarism". (please.) Now this. Media feeding frenzy, catch Inside Edition tonight for all the lurid details. Should McCain's hypocrisy of claiming that he is a maverick who will fight special interests while he romances the lobbyists be an indication that the man has no integrity? Yes. But it's sad that it takes sex to bring this sort of thing to light, when lobbyists rule the political scene on a daily basis, dictating policy that will touch the lives of millions, and the national media doesn't blink.



Happy to see McCain taken down a peg, don't get me wrong, because this does speak to his character. But not so happy that it takes something like this to get his character noticed in a national light, when the guy has been a dickhead all along.