Today's Political Rant

Nice to hear that Bill Clinton's heart bypass surgery apparently went well. Apart from the natural sadness if it did not, I'm not sure my view of humanity could withstand the celebrations of the "red meat" right-wingers if didn't make it. One wrote me that the former president's hospitalization was an "obvious stunt" timed to allow Clinton to make a dramatic reappearance — climbing out of a sickbed, no less — to stump for Kerry in the closing days of this campaign. I thought this was a pretty nutty theory but it makes a nice companion piece to another being advanced on some ultra-conservative websites; that Clinton deliberately timed his surgery do he'd have an excuse not to campaign for Kerry. The idea is that Clinton wants Kerry to lose, thereby leaving a clear field for Hillary in 2008. Somewhere out there, I'm sure there's someone who's convinced that Clinton is so devious that both are true; that he's simultaneously manuevering to help get Kerry elected and prevent it.