We ink-stained wretches have a habit of hyping the new new thing. We speculate breathlessly about the next model of iPhone, turn the NFL draft into a three-day spectacle, deploy packs of reporters to tail a Fox News commentator on a family bus tour of the mid-Atlantic. This tendency is particularly strong when it dovetails with our gift for self-promotion, which is why we sing hosannas to Twitter, the finest promotional device the world has ever known. So let me be the first (well, probably not) to note the social-networking site’s newest feat. In addition to upending the news business and fomenting the Green Revolution, Twitter turns out to be the source — and potential solution — of truly important questions, like whether a picture of an underwear-clad penis was sent by a polarizing Democratic congressman.
About half way through his farewell speech on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Senator John Ensign’s words turned personal. Though it likely made his colleagues wince, the Nevada Republican’s address was a rare moment of raw honesty on the Hill. Ensign, once a rumored candidate for President, will leave the Senate on Tuesday shamed by [...]
So as long as I’m on this kick of inexpertly applying economic theory to Washington, let’s try this one on for size: Does Moore’s Law apply to congressional scandals? This, as you may recall, was the 1965 observation of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors you could fit on a chip doubles [...]
Or, in Senator Ensign’s case, what happens in Washington and is sent back home to Nevada. Both Senators from the Silver State are increasingly deep political doo-doo, though for vastly different reasons. And one’s scandal may end up helping the other.
