Years ago, when I was young and full of niavete about our political system, the late Cheif Justice William Rehnquist was one of my favorite public figures.

Was this because of the depth of his legal scholarship? My respect for his tough-but-honest conservative judicial philosophy? Not at all. It was because Justice Rehnquist worse gold stripes on the sleeves of his robes, in homage to the character of the Lord High Chancellor from Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Now it seems the old fellow was not just endearingly eccentric, but often rather dangerously out of his mind:

Via the Washingotn Post

FBI files detail Rehnquist drug addiction

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The late U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist was dependent on a powerful sedative during his first decade on the Supreme Court and became delusional when he stopped taking the drug in 1981, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing newly released FBI files.

The fact that Rehnquist checked into a hospital for a week in late December 1981 to be treated for back pain and dependence on a prescription drug was previously known, the Post said.

The Post reported that the FBI concluded during its 1986 investigation that Rehnquist began taking the drug Placidyl for insomnia after back surgery in 1971 and was, by 1981, taking apparently three times the usual starting dose each night.

Doctors interviewed by the FBI told agents that when Rehnquist stopped taking the drug, he suffered paranoid delusions, including imagining "a CIA plot against him," the newspaper reported.

The FBI files also show that during both of Rehnquist's confirmation battles, the Justice Department asked the FBI to find out what witnesses lined up by Senate Democrats were prepared to say, the newspaper reported.

Then-assistant attorney general John Bolton, who recently stepped down as ambassador to the United Nations, approved enlisting the FBI and wrote that he "would accept responsibility should concerns be raised about the role of the FBI," the newspaper said.

Bolton told The Washington Post that there was no political bias in the investigation, because the request for the FBI to interview witnesses actually came from Senate Democrats.

I guess old Rehnny was alot more out there than his critics gave him credit for. Richard Nixon, however, knew something was up from the moment he met Rehnquist, who was at the time wearing a pink shirt and psychadelic tie, causing Nixon to label him a 'hippie'. Groovy.

Next Time, Christmas, Next Time!

The faces of our comrades in the trenches look drawn and bleak. There is general grumbling and finger-pointing, while the most optimistic among us can only manage to keep silent.

I'm sorry to say it yet again, but this year's War On Christmas has been a failure. All of our efforts to remove public Nativity scenes, have retailers tell people 'Happy Holidays', and rechristen (if you'll pardon the expression) large, decorated pines as 'Holiday Trees' have been for nought, or almost nought. For some reason, most Americans managed to remember that December 25 was the usual day for celebrating the birth of someone considered by Christians to be the Messiah.

I suppose we more than met our match in the greatest defenders of the Christian religion since Thomas More: John Gibson and Bill O'Reilly. Their tireless resolve in the face of our withering assault on Christmas's tackiest, most essential elements was truly Christ-like in its ability to absorb suffering without complaint.

Well, there's always next year...

Chile is Free At Last

in 1973, democratically-elected president Salvador Allende was nationalizing certain key parts of his country's economy, in accordance with mainstream economic opinon at the time as practiced by most Western European countries. The copper companies, however, were afeared of their interests and implored the Nixon administration to do something about it. Henry Kissinger, who once said that Chile was 'A dagger pointed at the heart of Antarctica' (that is, at nothing), now said that Chile could become 'an example for a successful and democratic socialist country' and therefor had to be stopped. The Nixon Administration responded by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to sabotage the Chilean economy and the installing a military junta.

The junta was led by General Auguste Pinochet, who died this week. During his rule he orchestrated the 'disappearance' of thousands of Chileans and dozens of Americans, Spanish, and other nationals who he deemed inconveient, while torturing thousands more, including the current Chilean president.

After his 'retirement' at the age of 75 (though he remained commander-in-chief for years afterward) Pinochet was arrested and brought to trial by Spanish authorities for having murdered their citizens. His opponents demanded the release of the CIA files about Pinochet. To counter that, a right-wing State Department official demanded that they release ALL the files, including the ones on Allende. What they revealed was a total lack of totalitarian ambition on Allende's part, who apparently viewed advocates of Cuban-style communism at least as big a threat as the right-wing militants who eventually killed him.

Well, anyway, Pinochet is dead. It's a shame he never had to face justice.

So, A Liberal Walks into a Bar...

Browsing the blogs lately I came upon already-in-progress plans to create a conservative 'Daily Show' type program on the Fox network (duh):

Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a “Daily Show”-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel.

The half-hour show is executive produced by “24’s” Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for “Politically Incorrect” and “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls “the sacred cows of the left” that don’t get made as much fun of by other comedy shows. “It’s a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel,” Surnow said. “It would tip more right as ‘The Daily Show’ tips left.”

I think is is going to fail. Why? Forgive me for making a sweeping generalization: conservatives aren't funny. Certainly there are exceptions. Jackie Mason, for one. Certain episodes of South Park. On the whole, however, when one wants to laugh the scale tilts heavily to the left. Even coming up with five right-wing comedians is a challenge. I can't get far without having to add Dennis Miller, and he's about as funny as Mikhail Glinka giving math lessons to Friedrich Nietzsche aboard the Andrea Doria.

Perhaps I should say: conservative attempts at humor are not usually successful, though there are plenty of conservatives who have excellent senses of humor.

Consider: recent forays into field of humor have not been terribly successful. The most prominent right-wing comic strip, Mallard Fillmore a.k.a. Gipper the Talking Points Duck, drawn by a man so thin-skinned and contemptuous of his readers' intelligence that he thought they would be fooled by a parody of his strip in America: the Book. Naturally, he struck back by implying that Jon Stewart has a thing for underage drunk boys. For me, it was easy to tell the real Mallard from the fake because Stewart's version was funny.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe this new show will be witty and insightful and make everyone laugh at their own foibles. But, the odds are against them.

Morning in America

A good night for the Dems.

In Ohio, Virginia, and Montana, it looks like incumbent Republican senators were beaten, though in VA and MT it was very close.

In Massachusetts Deval Patrick was swept into office in a landslide.

In Tennessee, a flurry of ads suggesting that Harold Ford Jr. was out to steal all the white women proved sufficient to sink his campaign.

In Pennsylvania, man-on-dog dead-baby-kissing creepmeister Rick Santorum lost big time. Good riddance.

All told, the Democrats gained at least 28 House seats and 6 senate seats (with Independents). Small majorities, but majorities nonetheless.

Also signficant: not a single Democratic incumbent lost. Not n the House, Senate, or the Governorships. Not one.

Awesome.

It's also fun to cruise the conservative blogs and find new perjorative terms for Democrats. So far I've found Dumbocrats, DemocRats, Democraps, Dimmocrats, Dim-o-cracks, etc. Let me know if you find others.

P.S. Daniel Ortega won in Nicarauga. Let the false comparisons begin!

P.P.S. Britney Spears is getting divorced.

P.P.P.S. Donald Rumsfeld resigned. Fancy that.