silly season

This is the silly season.

It is the time of the year when politicians are running around saying things they will regret later. Sometimes they do things that make you shake your head in amazement.

My own state senator was a rising star. He was a young lawyer (aren’t they all?) who was considered to be in training for a US Senate seat and/or Governor. He had been re-elected several times with little opposition. He held leadership positions in the state senate.

Then last year in a throughly drunk state, he stole a pickup that had a camper trailer attached, drove it a few blocks and was found asleep in the cab. Not good for anyone, much less a rising star.

This week one of his female staff members accused him of sexual harassment, and yesterday he resigned from the state senate. Even though he was on a different page on most issues from me, I really feel bad for him. His rising star just burned up, and he set the fire.

One of the national pols made a real big deal about how his opponent made promises he had not keep, then he took a deep breath (I think it was deep) and made promises that no one in this world could pull off. Oh well. He hopes the mics were turned off, but of course they weren't.

Through this I remember a point my pastor made in church a while back.

He said that all political speeches are the same. The speaker says that if you elect him, you cannot even begin to guess how good it is going to be. BUT, if you are stupid enough to elect the opponent, the worse you can imagine is not the beginning of how bad it is will be. Obviously you should elect the speaker. His opponent makes the same speech, by the way.

But, the pastor observed, things don’t change as much as any pol promises.

Somehow, I find some really bent and bruised logic in that comment. It does help me put this season in a degree of perspective.