Da Nile ain't just a river...

Rod.

Roddy.

What were ye thinkin'?

Politicians are idiots. The whole lot of 'em. Every last one....

Here's what happens. Politicians run for office and promise a lot of things they can't and never will deliver.

They get involved with K Street and others who ask them for favors. The favors are justified because the lobbyist gave the politician a boatload of Simoleans (don't you love that scene in "It's a Wonderful Life" when Jimmy Stewart holds up his last two bucks and hopes they will go forth and multiply...? Donna Reed's original name: Donnabelle Mullenger...bring on Jeopardy...Daily Double at that...!)

The politicians become accustomed to operating in an environment in which they have control and access to millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

Their friends in the lobbying industry lavish them with gifts and false praise and then the knucklehead politicians begin to believe their own press and the words of their "supporters/acolytes."

They forget their values and their kids and their wives and their friends and begin to act like little kings or queens (both senses of the word, thank you) ruling over a realm of their own making.

Then they do some ridiculously STUPID thing...like having sex with an intern or a prostitute or a page or someone else's wife or husband. OR THEY SAY INCRIMINATING THINGS WHILE THEY KNOW THEY'RE BEING WIRETAPPED...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or they take or solicit a bribe.

OR THEY SAY INCRIMINATING THINGS WHILE THEY KNOW THEY'RE BEING WIRETAPPED...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sorry, got a little carried away there...)

Or they have some clown pave their driveway or paint their house or pay their greens fees or buy their dinner(s)

OR THEY... (couldn't help myself)

And THEN...

...they get caught!

And THEN...

...they are outraged and they protest their innocence and "look forward" to their day in court where they are sure they will be "vindicated." Oh, sorry..."completely vindicated."

And THEN...

...that doesn't happen and they are proven to be incredible scumbags and are shown to have done the thing(s) they were accused of.

Idiots!

George Carlin, may he rest in eternal peace, said it best. "Cop didn't see it...I didn't do it"

The problem is that, more often than not, at high levels of government, the cops do see it and you did do it and you're goin' down big boy.

Either don't be dishonest or, if you are going to be, just admit you screwed up and let the chips fall.

Richard Nixon was elected with one of the largest pluralities in US electoral history. He was The Man. If he had come clean about Watergate at the outset, the people would have been pissed off but would have forgiven him.

But he stonewalled and prevaricated (and postvaricated too...remember David Frost?) and bloviated (what a great word!) and got caught in lie after lie after lie.

Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson gave us the following:

"When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?"

Oh Roddy... we surely knew ye...!