;)
Wednesday
Sep112013
The Commentariat -- Sept. 12, 2013
Michael Gordon & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry and a team of American arms control experts arrived [in Geneva] Thursday to begin talks with their Russian counterparts on a plan to secure and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons. American officials said they were planning a series of early tests to determine if the Russian government, and more importantly President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, were serious about accepting international control of Syria's huge chemical arsenal." ...
... Ernesto Londoño & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear -- a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's civil war." ...
... Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: "As the United States and Russia searched for a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Syria's chemical weapons, a four-person United Nations rights panel presented detailed evidence on Wednesday of what it said were war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by pro-government forces and, to a lesser extent, rebels in the 30-month-old conflict." ...
... Vladimir Putin in the New York Times: "The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders." ...
... Steve M. of NMMNB: Putin alienates the wingnuts, potentially his strongest U.S. allies!
... New York Times Editors: "... the diplomacy could provide more of an immediate deterrent against further chemical attacks than the threat of an attack, and far more of a deterrent in the longer run. Russia will continue to make seemingly unreasonable demands until a deal is finally signed and is unlikely to admit that the Syrian regime carried out the gas attack. But Congress and Mr. Obama should be careful about setting hard deadlines or drawing any more red lines. At least Syria has admitted that it has chemical weapons, for the first time ever; Mr. Putin has acknowledged to the world that there must be limits on the blank checks he was writing his client state; and Russia and the United States are working toward a common strategic goal for the first time in a very long time." ...
... President Jimmy Carter, in a Washington Post op-ed: "A military strike by the United States is undesirable and will become unnecessary if this alternative [Russian] proposal is strongly supported by the U.N. Security Council.... The main goals of condemning the use of these outlawed weapons and preventing their further use can still be realized by concerted international action." ...
... Nicholas Kristof: "... the mere flexing of military power worked -- initially and tentatively. And while it seems that neither Congress nor the public has any appetite for cruise missile strikes on Syria, it will be critical to keep the military option alive in the coming weeks or Russia and Syria will play us like a yo-yo." ...
... Jon Stewart on Fox "News"'s coverage of the proposal to relieve Syria of its chemical weapons:
... CW: As we've discovered, it isn't only Fox "News" that sees the possibility of a peaceful resolution as a weakening of U.S. strength or a presidential blunder.
Bibi Is Reading Your E-Mails. Glenn Greenwald: "The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals. Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis."
Rich People Spend Big to Make You Stupid. Mike Allen & Jim Vandehei of Politico: "An Arlington, Va.-based conservative group, whose existence until now was unknown to almost everyone in politics, raised and spent $250 million in 2012 to shape political and policy debate nationwide. The group, Freedom Partners, and its president, Marc Short, serve as an outlet for the ideas and funds of the mysterious Koch brothers, cutting checks as large as $63 million to groups promoting conservative causes, according to an IRS document to be filed shortly." CW: Allen & Vandehei got this scoop, no doubt, because their wingnut sourcing is very, very good.
More Stupid GOP Tricks. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Facing another revolt by the House's most ardent conservatives, Republican leaders scrapped a vote this week on legislation that would keep the federal government financed through mid-December while ending financing for President Obama's health care law. The leaders say they will bring the measure up next week, but with just a handful of legislative days left until a government shutdown, Republicans are in a squeeze. Democrats are uniting in opposition to the bill, not only because of the resolution to starve the Affordable Care Act, but also because the level of financing for the government would reflect the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration." ...
... Greg Sargent: "At some point, House GOP leaders will have to pass an important bill with a lot of Democratic support -- stiff-arming the Tea Party in the process. GOP leaders are trying to defer that moment for as long as possible, but there's just no clear way around it."
... Brian Beutler of Salon: House "conservatives are poised -- once again! -- to align with progressives in temporarily handing control of the House of Representatives over to Nancy Pelosi, and protecting the poor from deep government spending cuts." ...
... CW: there are quite a few posts about the internecine struggles among House Republicans. Most of them get into the weeds, because it's all weeds. Matt Fuller of Roll Call notes that the House leadership is pissed at groups like their erstwhile friends at the Club for Growth who insist on attaching defund-ObamaCare language to every bill. James Downie of the Washington Post observes that House Republicans are turning on Senate Republicans for refusing to mount a series of filibusters with the objective of defunding ObamaCare. Ed Kilgore: "... at some point, 'the base' of the Republican Party needs to learn that sticking with The Crazy to and beyond the gates of delirium won't get them everything they want in life...." ...
... Update: To add to the GOP disarray, Senate Republicans are "screwing" the House Republican leadership. Burgess Everett of Politico: "[Ted] Cruz [R-Texas] and [Mike] Lee [R-Utah] have resisted the House approach because the Democratic-controlled Senate would surely vote to keep the government funded and easily defeat the Obamacare defunding component. Cruz called the approach 'procedural chicanery' and asserted that the House GOP would be 'complicit in the disaster that is Obamacare' if it supported the maneuver." ...
More Stupider GOP Tricks. "Is Nothing Sacred?" Dana Milbank: "Rather than join in the bipartisan ceremonies marking the 12th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, [conservatives] rallied on the West Lawn of the Capitol, carrying signs that said 'Impeach Obama' and, over a cartoon of the president trampling Uncle Sam, 'Americans Don't Support Terrorists or Their Minions.' On the other side of the Capitol, conservative leaders joined the eccentric Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) at what was supposed to be a 'memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and 2012.' But the 3,000 who perished in 2001 got just a few passing references at the 35-minute event. The 'primary purpose' of the gathering, in the words of organizer Jerry Boykin, a retired Army general, was to remember the four men who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.... More to the point, the conservatives had assembled to blame the Obama administration for the deaths and to demand further investigation of the resulting 'scandal.' ... Some of the most prominent figures in the Republican Party joined in marring the memorials with Benghazi politics," including John Boehner, Darell Issa & Marco Rubio. ...
... Where's the Outrage? Dave Weigel of Slate provides this picture of the big Benghazi protest. Not exactly a cast of thousands. Though the so-called organizers predicted 3,000 protesters, Weigel's estimate was that only about 100 of the faithful showed up:
Dave Jamieson of the Huffington Post: "After extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees for years, Trader Joe's has told workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week that they will need to find insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year, according to a confidential memo from the grocer's chief executive. In the memo to staff dated Aug. 30, Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane said the company will cut part-timers a check for $500 in January and help guide them toward finding a new plan under the Affordable Care Act. The company will continue to offer health coverage to workers who carry 30 hours or more on average."
Ann Marimow & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The D.C. businessman at the center of an ongoing city corruption investigation secretly spent more than a half-million dollars on get-out-the-vote efforts for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.... Jeffrey E. Thompson, a former city contractor who allegedly financed a secret campaign for then-mayoral candidate Vincent C. Gray (D) in 2010, financed an independent effort to reach urban voters on behalf of Clinton in Texas and at least three other states during the 2008 Democratic primaries.... A search of federal campaign records found no evidence that Thompson or White disclosed the alleged expenditures or activities..., as required by campaign finance laws.... A senior official on Clinton's 2008 campaign said no one in the campaign's senior leadership or with budget-making authority knew about White's independent canvassing campaign. Other senior officials said they had never heard of White."
Professor Petraeus' First Day of Classes. Brian Jones of Business Insider: "A video recently posted to YouTube shows the former director of the CIA and retired Army general [David Petraeus] being followed down the street on his way to his first class by a small, but passionate group of students. It's hard to make out a lot of what they're saying, but there's a lot of 'war criminal!' And a general sense that they don't like him very much." Includes video. CW: All this aggravation for a $1/class. Maybe CUNY isn't the best venue for Prof. P.
Anna Palmer & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will meet with the top four House Republicans next week in Washington. The high tech CEO's visit comes as Facebook is facing ongoing scrutiny over privacy concerns and Internet safety."
Local News
David Chen, et al., of the New York Times: "New York City’s Democratic power brokers moved swiftly on Wednesday to prevent a combative sequel to the party's primary for mayor, as union officials and party leaders rallied around the front-runner, Bill de Blasio, and urged the second-place finisher, William C. Thompson Jr. to end his quest for a runoff election.... With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. de Blasio had won 40.3 percent of the vote, just over the 40 percent required by law to avoid a runoff, but there were more than 16,000 paper ballots, some still arriving by mail, that could push Mr. de Blasio below that threshold when they are counted next week." ...
... Gail Collins on lessons from the New York City elections. Here's the "racist" ad that irked Mike Bloomberg:
... CW: BTW, I disagree with Collins about Mark Sanford. Yeah, he's a narcissistic jerk, but his full-blown love affair with What's-Her-Name, whom he plans to marry, does not, in my book, equate with Weiner's sexting or Spitzer's hooking. I fault Sanford for dereliction of duty, but not for falling for somebody-not-his-wife.
Vivan Yee of the New York Times: "Charles J. Hynes, the district attorney who was Brooklyn's most powerful political figure and top law enforcement officer for more than 23 years..., accepted a stunning defeat as voters swept a much younger man [Kenneth Thompson, 47] into his place, and became the first district attorney in the city to lose a re-election bid since 1955."
Stupid Bigot (Admittedly Redundant) Tricks. Tamara Lush of the AP: " A Florida pastor was arrested Wednesday as he drove a pickup truck towing a large barbecue-style grill filled with kerosene-soaked Qurans to a park, where the pastor had said he was planning to burn 2,998 of the Muslim holy books -- one for every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Sheriff's deputies in Polk County, Fla., arrested Pastor Terry Jones, 61, and his associate pastor, Marvin Sapp Jr., 44, each on a felony charge of unlawful conveyance of fuel."
Stupid Tricks, Right & Left
Mackenzie Weinger & Kate Brannen of Politico: Elizabeth O'Bagy, "the Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-ed piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force, has been fired from the [neoconservative] Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.... According to [Kimberly] Kagan, [the founder of ISW,] O'Bagy in May led her to believe she had successfully defended her dissertation when she had actually failed her defense. The [WSJ] piece had also come under fire for misrepresenting her affiliations. Originally the op-ed only listed O'Bagy, 26, as only 'a senior analyst' at the ISW, later adding a clarification that disclosed her connection to a Syrian rebel advocacy group." ...
... Zack Beauchamp of Think Progress makes the case that O'Bagy was never in a Ph.D. program.
Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Public Policy Polling (PPP) sparked controversy Wednesday after the left-leaning firm declined to release a survey it conducted last weekend that accurately forecasted the successful recall of a Democratic state senator from Colorado. The survey PPP conducted, but did not release, showed Colorado District 3 Sen. Angela Giron (D) would be recalled by a 54 percent to 42 percent margin. 'In a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll,' Director Tom Jensen wrote in a post on the firm's website. 'It turns out we should have had more faith in our numbers because she was indeed recalled by 12 points.'"
News Ledes
AP: "NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has left the solar system, boldly going where no machine has gone before. Thirty-six years after it rocketed away from Earth, the plutonium-powered spacecraft has escaped the sun's influence and is now cruising 11 1/2 billion miles away in interstellar space.... just in case it encounters intelligent life out there, it is carrying a gold-plated, 1970s-era phonograph record with multicultural greetings from Earth, photos and songs, including Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode,' along with Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Louis Armstrong."
New York Times: "A Jersey Shore boardwalk barely rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy was ravaged by fire on Thursday, as flames that began in an ice cream shop quickly engulfed businesses along a stretch of beach in two towns."
AFP: "Russia said on Thursday that North Korea was apparently conducting work on a nuclear reactor, warning that the ageing facility was in such a 'nightmarish state' it could cause a disaster."
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Reader Comments (19)
@Constant Weader-
I must disagree with you on equating Eliot Spitzer with Anthony Weiner. I agree that Mark Sanford is not on a par with either of these turkeys. However, I think Spitzer's past "hooking up with hookers" is far less disastrous than Weiner's "sexting"--which apparently is still going on. Having sex with paid for prostitutes is not illegal in many countries, and politicians in Europe do it all the time--as do many in the US of A. Spitzer's dilemma is that he put himself out there as "Mr. Morality."
Weiner is beyond the pale--a true sex addict, with denial intact! And he just keeps lying until he gets caught--then comes up with a bigger, crazier lie. I see Eliot Spitzer as a more honorable person, although very narcissistic--as are all of these guyz. Spitzer has obviously made some kind of amends to his wife and daughters, and their rapprochement seems to be working. Weiner continues to humiliate his wife and friends. And to put himself out there as a Victim. That I find disgusting!
@Kate Madison: we've had this discussion before, & a lot of commenters disagreed with me, so I'm not going to re-litigate it. The bottom line is that I see prostitutes as victims -- how many little girls say, "I want to be a whore when I grow up." It's a career choice of last resort.
As NY AG, Spitzer was in the business of shutting down prostitution rings, so the hypocrisy of his availing himself of their services is beyond the pale.
I'm not sure how you know about Spitzer's relationship with his wife; the rumor is that they live apart now, though during the campaign, he refused to say. The NY Post, not exactly an unimpeachable source, says Silda will sue for divorce now that the campaign is over.
Marie
So, avoiding yet another Middle Eastern debacle is weak? What kind of idiot thinks war is a good option? Trust me, wars never turn out the way you think they will.
Assad knows if he doesn't turn over the chemical weapons now, the cruise missiles are still locked and loaded. Putin knows this too. The Chechnian rebels would love to get their hands on some sarin to release in the Moscow subway.
This isn't over, by a long shot. The Great Game goes on and on.
"What kind of idiot thinks war is a good option? "
I think I'll print that as a bumpersticker and put it on my truck.
@Patrick and Barbarossa; I'll answer the question.
"What kind of idiot thinks war is a good option? "
Unlike you two, mostly dumb trucks that have never experienced the carnage of war.
When the man said, "War is Hell."; he meant it. War is killing babies with gas. War is burning villages. War is the smell of death.
War is the leading Horseman.
@Patrick. Good idea. For maximum impact, also attach an American (or Confederate) flag bumper sticker, a "Ted Cruz in 2016" sticker & a worn-looking "Jesus Is Lord" sticker. Otherwise, the guy in the pick-up behind you will assume you're one of those commie liberal make-love-not-war hippies.
Marie
News Flash: Buzz has it that the three loonies from Congress who went to Egypt and gave their sappy little nut job of a press conference with the message of spreading DEMocracy were so fulfilled by the experience that they have now decided to spread their manure further a field and tour the whole of the Middle East. They are like a successful rock group, they imagine, only instead of music they will give their audiences a taste of true American patriotic zeal sprinkled with pure asininity. How the crowds will love them, they think, maybe even flowers will be tossed their way. Monty Python's Flying Circus couldn't do better than these three high wires who will eventually fall flat on their faces. Just imagine if this was for real.
What's with McCain appearing on every bloody TV talk show? Good lord, has he suddenly gained so much purchase? Really?
Another response to the "What kind of idiot..." one would think rhetorical) Stewart question:
Maybe Raytheon, manufacturers of the Tomahawk cruise missile. Raytheon's stock prices has risen from about 55 to 78 or so in the last year.....And I'm sure it would be easy to find other instances of why war looks so good to some (always from the safe confines of a mahogany-paneled boardroom, of course.)
The message of the blockbuster WWI book, "Merchants of Death" remains very relevant today.
@ Marie: Just want to express my thanks to you for shlepping to that COLD McDonalds to bring us the latest. Also––hope you get your car back to its electrical efficiency.
@Marie: So extramarital sex is okay as long as you're in love? You only fault Sanford for dereliction of duty? Really?
I don't care who is having sex with whom as long as its consensual, but if you're caught, don't lie!
Nobody dreams of growing up and being a fry cook at McDonalds, but most of us still eat there occasionally. (Don't take that too literally, it's an analogy).
I like that the police in Florida used old-fashioned cop BS to pull over and detain Rev Jones and his acolyte. No First Amendment rights problems when you sideline the boys and impound their car for safety and registration violations, and the felony charge for improper transport of flammables is going to cost those idiots, even if it doesn't stick -- although I don't know why it wouldn't.
It is really good to see that the FL locals have figured this guy out and are no longer tolerating his provocative (inflammatory) grandstanding.
Interesting story about another neocon "expert" being put in a position of authority they have not earned, and certainly have not been upfront about. (Bush's lying about his military service being a prime example.)
This isn't to say that Ms. O'Bagy couldn't have been effective at her job, but lying about your background to pad your credentials and make yourself more likely to be taken seriously by those who pull the power levers and to attract invites from Sunday morning gasbag extravaganzas seriously detracts from one's credibility. (Charlie Pierce compared O'Bagy's lying about her PhD with the character of Ted Baxter on the old Mary Tyler Moore show putting down Jacques Cousteau as a character reference on his resume because he thought no one would ever check.)
This doesn't mean that there aren't hordes of hacks, far less qualified than O'Bagy running around spouting off all the time about issues they know next to nothing about (the Three Stooges' Testicle Massage Tour of Egypt's military junta is a prime example, anything David Gregory says is another). But recalling (painfully) the Bush Debacle, one doesn't have to scroll down the list of Horrible Shit too far before arriving at his brilliant and highly effective idea of filling vital positions of authority in Iraq with fundamentalist Christians who helped support the Bush Election Stealing Effort or who fund raised for him.
Hell, they didn't even need to pad their resumes. The HAD no resumes. Their experience in nation building and managing a state in chaos in the middle of a war was non-existent. All they had to do was put down Jesus as a character reference and they were in. And what a bang-up job they all did!
Just consider the army of little teabagger morons working for the big teabagger morons in congress, covering Washington offices with their drool, firing off reams of misspelled memos, and helping to make policy.
Christ on a cracker!
Top Ten signs that Ted Cruz is serious about courting the most extreme haters in his run to be the Boss, #5:
He spends an entire afternoon (yesterday) at the Heritage Foundation (aka Satan's Lair) mewling over the memory of racist pig-dog Jesse Helms.
"Oooooh..." gushed the ol' Tailgunner. "I wish we had a hundred Jesse Helmses in congress right now."
Does the Poison Control Center have an antidote for Cruz toxins?
@cakers: One thing that particularly annoys me is being on the receiving end of these straw-man arguments, wherein I say one thing & someone carries that something to an extreme which changes the meaning, whereupon that someone argues that "my" POV is untenable. I don't see where I implied that extramarital affairs are just dandy, but when you get all grown up, you'll find out that people have 'em -- most certainly people you know & respect. If this is not the case, you have quite a limited circle of friends.
Sanford was married for a long time to a woman who I would guess (based on several anecdotes I've read about her) was probably was not the ideal, supportive wife; he met a beautiful woman who also fulfilled his need to be respected by a partner, & he found the relationship too compelling to give up. I don't know that that was exactly how the dynamic worked, but I suspect it was something like that. That's not exactly a unique set of circumstances.
I would not condemn a couple to stay in an unsatisfying marriage for propriety's sake or "for the children" or whatever, especially if one or both of them found more satisfactory relationships. Stories of long-suffering lovers who can't consummate their affairs because of prior commitments are best left to Victorian ladies' novels.
Since you seem to require me to be specific, this does not mean I condone cheating on one's spouse; it's usually a bad idea. What it means is that I understand that "good" people/"normal" people do it, & that the rest of us -- many of whom will at some time find themselves in similar circumstances -- should not be too quick to cast stones.
Having a real love affair -- as Sanford did -- is not, IMO, the equivalent of satisfying transitory physical desires. Anyone with a scintilla of imagination can figure out ways to do that
without exploiting strangers.
You certainly contradict yourself, BTW, when you imply (a) on the one hand, there's something wrong with my thinking that people's love affairs do not necessarily preclude their serving in public office, but (b) on the other hand, you don't care who has sex with whom as long as nobody lies about when s/he's caught. Once Sanford's Appalachian Trail ruse fell apart, he quickly came clean in a very public & embarrassing way. (He told his wife about the affair some time prior to that, I think because she caught wind of it.) Ergo, Sanford met your criterion.
What I do fault him for is not letting his security detail or other officials know how to reach him; any number of emergencies could have arisen in his absence, & the governor of a state has to make arrangements to cover for those contingencies. He didn't. That's the dereliction of duty I'm talking about.
Marie
Akhilleus:
Passing on a comment I wrote earlier this week on a Krugman blog wondering at the wonk gap in the Repug party. Think of it as a footnote to your "Christ on a Cracker" thoughts expressed above:
"As the Republicans have dumbed down their party to appeal to a base that lives happily in the intellectual basement, they have found themselves hostage to the ignorance they have spent forty years fostering and rewarding.
Any R who wants to have a sensible policy discussion about the real changes the nation has undergone since the fifties is shouted down or drummed out of the party, and the only young "bright lights" drawn to the party may be able to move ideas around like chess pieces, that is manipulate the givens of Beltway debate to win a limited, political point, but they do not have the capacity or will--both hampered by their increasingly narrow views-- to think or create.
In short, the R's do have their wonks; they're just third rate."
...and you (Akhilleus) have named some of them.
Ken,
'Nuff said.
And furthermore (negating my opening)...
Additional problems, and not tangential ones, but essential problems, arise when third rate wonks (there's gotta be a better expression for someone who pretends to be smart but is not there by half...wunks? skunks? winks? wanks? wankers?....yeah, that's the ticket) draw on fourth and fifth rate research based on ideological purity (ie, of extremely tenuous connection with the factual universe) and begin to quote each other. What you end up with is the political version of Zippy the Pinhead sitting in a laundromat hypnotized by the spin cycle. Except without Zippy's interesting sense of fashion.
So we end up with wankers writing bunk after reading research from winks who quote skunks.
Yow, as Zippy would say.
Andy Borowitz gets it:
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) was harshly critical today of President Obama’s nationally televised address about Syria this week, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “The President’s decision to think before attacking another country flies in the face of American foreign policy.”
“The United States of America has been involved in countless armed conflicts since this great nation was founded,” Mr. McCain said. “Many of those would never have happened if we’d stopped to think about them first. Sadly, the President seems not to have learned this lesson of history....”
McCain is not even a "wanker writing bunk after reading research from winks who quote skunks" He shoots rather than reads, and does not think it important to ask questions later. Sigh.
It seems like The Heritage Foundation is about a whisper from fitting the Southern Poverty Law Center's designation of a hate group. I stand by an earlier prediction that Senator Cruz will self immolate. He can't contain the narcissism that consumes him.
@marie: One thing that particularly annoys me is being on the receiving end of these straw-man arguments, wherein I say one thing & someone carries that something to an extreme which changes the meaning,
I never said, and certainly didn't mean to imply that having love affairs precludes people from serving in public office. I meant what I said in (b): I don't care about people's sex lives as long as they are consensual.
When I say "I don't care", that doesn't mean I have no opinion on Sanford stepping out on his wife, it just means I wouldn't judge his fitness for public office by it.