This week saw the formal entry of Michelle Bachmann into the race for president and the star that was Sarah Palin continued to dim even as Gabrielle Giffords took her first tentative steps towards recovery. And all the while the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case kept getting sketchier and seamier. C’est la vie?

See How She Runs!

Michelle Bachmann began her quixotic quest for the presidency in Iowa, in the town in which she was born. The fact that she was born in one of the most color-free states in the America and represents the most color-free congressional district in the state of Minnesota should not be dismissed as an irrelevancy.

What can be dismissed is her language-impaired effort to link herself to the heritage of John Wayne (yet another Republican icon who pretended to be a hero – Ronald Reagan anyone?). Somehow she managed to link herself to John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer who dressed as a clown.

While the irony is delicious and bizarre, it detracts from the actual Michelle Bachmann narrative. It is a fact that is that she is an unabashed and unbowed religious zealot who believes that God has chosen her to put America on a true Christian path. A graduate of the O.W. Coburn School of Law, that well-known home of legal scholars, Michelle Bachmann trained to apply “Christian principles” to the law.
It is always wise to beware of zealots.

The danger with zealots is they don’t believe that they are right, they know that they are right, which means that anyone and everyone who doesn’t agree with them is wrong.

History shows us that when zealots lead it never ends well.

Sad Coincidence

During this past week, on the same day that Sarah Palin appeared in Iowa to continue her will she-or won’t she presidential candidacy fan dance, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords appeared publicly for the first time. A truly sad coincidence as I would imagine that Sarah Palin is the one who publicly put cross-hairs on Congresswoman Giffords’ district and then feigned innocent indignation after the congresswoman was gunned down.

Being that the attention span of the American public and the memory of the American media can be measured in nanoseconds, it should come as no surprise that this sad coincidence went without commentary. But it should not be this way.

Sarah Palin’s off the chain and irresponsible rhetoric created an environment where a member of Congress was shot and almost killed. Just as Gabrielle Giffords will carry the scars of her attack for the rest of her life, Sarah Palin should carry the burden of responsibility and guilt for the rest of her days.

C’est La Vie?

As this column is being written the prosecution’s case against Dominque Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, appears to be crumbling. The hotel chambermaid who accused him of sexual assault appears to have some very sketchy aspects to her own background in the process undermining her own credibility.

We may never know all of the facts regarding what happened at the Sofitel Hotel in New York City in May. What we do know is that the next woman who complains of rape or sexual assault anywhere now will carry a greater burden of proof than ever before.

And that is the real tragedy.

Have a great weekend!