Ok, so a little literary license, please. Congressman Gary Condit, like Billy Joe McAllister, reportedly was seen throwing something, not off the Wilson Bridge, but into a trash can in Alexandria, Virginia the very night the DC police were going to search his apartment.
I live in Alexandria, Virginia and I checked our garbage can but found no watch case as described in the Washington Post. Because I think it is important to be an involved and concerned citizen, I also wanted to check the garbage can of my back-door neighbor, The James, but the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices had the predictable response: She hid the house keys and disconnected the garage door opener.
The cops, acting on a tip, searched the area and retrieved the item which was a box of the type in which a new watch might be placed. ABC news said, "While police say it remains unclear whether this development has anything to do with the Levy case, they add that it is clearly 'curious' and 'suspicious.'"
A show of hands, please, of those who think this development is "curious?" And now those who think it is "suspicious?" Ok, that's everyone in the solar system with the exception of members of the Democratic Party in Congress.
The Los Angeles Times had a longish article by Mark Arax and Stephen Brauns, about the three Condit brothers, the Congressman, the Cop, and the Criminal. In the article, locals recounted the time that brother Burl (the cop) "was once reprimanded for shooting his service revolver in a park for fun, and city officials say one errant bullet even landed in his rump."
No. Wait. Hold it. Picture this: He's shooting his gun, one assumes, into the air "for fun" and a bullet ends up hitting him in the butt? Just where WAS his head? He's lucky he didn't blow his brains out.
As a public service, the Mullings Gas Price Report continues. This weekend, about halfway between Atlanta and Clayton, Georgia for a chat with the 9th Congressional District GOP, gasoline was $1.11. I wanted to buy 73 cars, fill them with gas, drive them to San Francisco, and sell them, fully fueled.
On the Fund Raising Follies Front (how alliterative, Rich. Now, stop it), the Washington Post's Tom Edsall demonstrates what happens when you send an excellent reporter on the road. Edsall was in Boston last week to cover the Republican National Committee's summer meeting. While he was there he decided to check in on what the Democrats were up to.
Edsall discovered that the Massachusetts Democrats are busily drawing new Congressional District lines which will force their fellow Democrat, Congressman Marty Meehan (of Shays-Meehan fame), into a bruising and probably unsuccessful primary race against another incumbent Democrat.
The hook in all this is a Massachusetts law, which the Statehouse crowd shoved through a couple of years ago, making it illegal for Congressional office holders to use their Federal campaign accounts to run for state office.
Meehan has been making many noises about running for Governor. But without the use of the $2 Million he has in his Congressional campaign account, (WHAT?? Marty Meehan, one of the champions of campaign finance reform is sitting on a hoard of TWO MILLION DOLLARS? Have I missed this in the reporting?) his political future is in serious doubt.
In the interests of fairness, Mullings checked out Chris Shays' mid-year FEC report which shows a whopping $2,101.46 cash-on-hand. Old joke: Hey! Who donated the 46 cents? What? They ALL did?
Get some fascinating info on the "Ode to Billy Joe"; a hilarious discussion of the word "petard";and a pretty good Catchy Caption of the Day on
the Secret Decoder Ring Page.
A Member of Congress with two million dollars stashed away in his campaign account arguing FOR campaign finance reform is very similar to the New York City Liberals who, having purchased and remodeled their beachfront properties in the Hamptons, have become leading and outspoken advocates of a no-growth policy for the region.
How to you define "hoist with his own petard" in Boston? Oh. Same as here.
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