Karma

"What goes around comes around,
What goes up must come down"
- Alicia Keys

The original is a great song, but it's even better with the sampling from Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". The first time I heard it, I was in a club with a friend. We heard the sampling, and he said, "This is awesome, but who the hell would Stevie Wonder let sample that." After we realized who it was, we agreed that she was the only person we could think of with the pedigree to sample Mr. Wonder.

But this ain't about that -- this is about my current guilty pleasure in politics. (My current guilty pleasure in TV is Prison Break, which I just finished watching). I spent my late teens and early twenties as a Clintonite -- rising to the almost meaningless posts of Corresponding Secretary of the Young Democrats and Parliamentarian for the College Democrats, both of Maryland. I even made his first inaugural ball. The man made some big mistakes, but I never thought he, or we, deserved to have his entire second term derailed by lies about fellatio. Hell, this happens in the Castro all the time (the lying, the fellatio, and the combination); however, the same people who hate the activist judiciary decided that if they couldn't win at the ballot box they'd take it to court.

So I am enjoying the vortex accosting President Bush's second term. I am DeLighted to see Rep. Tom DeLay go down DeDrain. I think the very style that brought him to power has made him enough enemies that even if his congressional career survives, his leadership role is over. Then there's the Jack Abramoff affair -- more of Delays chickens coming home to roost. My favorite is the Fitzgerald leak probe, which may indict Mr. Libby, Mr. Rove, and/or Vice-President Cheney. On the Sunday shows Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison actually suggested that a perjury charge (i.e., lying) would be a "technicality" and unworthy of an indictment. Seemed like a "high crime or misdemeanor" just 7 years ago. I don't know whether that's idiocy, irony, or hubris -- but it's sure as hell Karma.

Why is this all a guilty pleasure? Why can't a good Clintonite enjoy this? Unfortunately, the most important part of the Fitzgerald investigation involves the misinformation campaign that led to the war in Iraq. The erroneous or concocted intelligence. The manipulation of the "free press" to help (for which I blame both sides).

If President Clinton's lies hurt Ms. Lewinsky, she has my sympathies. The war in Iraq, though, has cost the lives of nearly 2,000 of America's finest -- and innumerable Iraqis. Like the bumper sticker says...When Clinton Lied, No One Died.

I would have ended there, but I want to give a second to Miss Rosa Parks. I think Karma sends her straight to heaven. Gay rights are civil rights, and she helped start it all. Thanks.

(For the record, I lifted the pics from various seemingly public websites. If any are still proprietary, and anyone's upset, I'm happy to take them down.)