Washington: Attack of the Microbes

      "Everything is changing.  People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."                              
          Will Rogers

                                                                                     

       When Joseph Medill was publisher of the Chicago Tribune in the late 19th century, the newspaper closely reflected his views.  Medill's views were not well informed on some matters.  Science was among these.
      For a time he was fascinated by sunspots.  And in the pages of the Tribune, as a matter of policy, all natural phenomena were attributed to sunspots.  Abruptly, Medill became interested in microbes. And abruptly, in the pages of the Tribune, sunspots disappeared. All natural phenomena were thenceforth attributed to microbes.
      It might be a stretch to call today's politics natural phenomena.  But in explanation of them, microbes and sunspots make about as much sense as anything.
      Consider Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In them, we lately have two of the most powerful people in the world pleading penury.
      Biden is known to be a wag. However, he did not appear to be in joking mode here.  And he amplified his claim with  particulars that were demonstrably -- let us try to put this as charitably as possible -- not consistent with fact.  Sometimes Ol' Joe's gaffes are only that. He's been called the kind of guy who'd bring a ham sandwich to a Seder meal.  Maybe this was just one of those times when he talked faster than he thought.
      Clinton's comic muse has long since decamped. The possibility of levity need not be considered in her case. So, what the dickens was she up to? She knocks down a six-figure fee for making a speech. Husband Bill's net worth is estimated  in the tens of millions.
       Sometimes, when we desperately want to be liked, we blurt things we regret.  It can happen to anyone. By all accounts she must be powerfully regretting this one.
      On other fronts:

      -- Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas vigilante, strikes poses suggesting he is available for a presidential nod.  The notion of a Cruz presidency is credible to people who think a diverse electorate could be led by a man who is genuinely offended by differences of opinion.
      -- Congress continues its serial homage to the Keystone Kops.
      --  Speaker of the House John Boehner continues hoping that his ranting will camouflage his bumbling.
      --  The Supreme Court has opened still another channel for fat cat political money. Chief Justice John Roberts decorated this ruling with a pronouncement that large contributions by wealthy individuals do not   necessarily create  a presumption that wealthy individuals will exercise extra influence. Television comedian Bill Maher said this opinion could have been written by "The Little Mermaid."  Sounds about right.
      -- The Supreme Court has ruled that businesses can have religion and are allowed to enforce it upon their employees.   Memo to The Little Mermaid: Maybe you want to reconsider your desire to become human.
      -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has tried to preserve his bona fides by claiming that when his staff locked the door to New York City he, gosh,  just didn't notice.  He remains presidential timber because he is such a stand-up guy.  We could give him the keys to the Pentagon and rest easy. He would pay attention next time.  Honest.
      -- Like tedious relatives who simply won't go home, an assortment of yesterday's crackpots and has-beens -- well, simply won't go home.

      As we see no witch crushed beneath a fallen house, we must conclude that Auntie Em is not on her way to wake us from an outlandish dream. All this really is happening.
      About the Supreme Court we can only sigh and wait.  Not for the first time it has been peppered with appointees better known for ideology than for ability.  The court has seen a resurgence of competence before, and eventually it will again.
      Of political discourse we must say there's not much of the genuine article nowadays. Nor does Hillary Clinton's performance so far offer improvement.  In her silly claims of financial struggle, and in her response to the hoots that followed, she has been notably tone deaf. In interviews she can pirouette through an answer without honestly touching on the substance of the question asked. And she regularly does.
      Our public life is crowded with figures who seem less interested in messages that will resonate than in messages that are easy to swallow. It is as if they have so long urged us to think in the idiom of bumper stickers they've begun doing so themselves. Or they use sloganeering to costume mere ambition. Or they resort to it because they genuinely don't know what to say to the public in these complex times.
      Seen through the knothole of the 2016 presidential election, our next few years may be an era of conspicuously weak leadership. Hopeful hearts have wanted Hillary Clinton to be an exception. But so far she doesn't reliably stand out from the crowd.