Eye Plank Ignored

Many on the left are getting excited over the prospect that there may be photos in existence showing President Bush standing next to discredited lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The chills and swooning they are experiencing is best summarized by this Time magazine teaser:

TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them. And that has been a fear of the Bush team's for the past several months: that a picture of the President with the admitted felon could become the iconic image of direct presidential involvement in a burgeoning corruption scandal like the shots of President Bill Clinton at White House coffees for campaign contributors in the mid-1990s.

Maybe, maybe not. I doubt it, though Time can dare to dream. And while I don't support the guilt-by-association smear campaign being waged by Time, sometimes fire needs to be fought with fire.

After all, what is truly the more odious social mingling - the President hanging out with a guy accused of purchasing political favors. Or a US Representative hanging out with a murderous dictator bent on world destruction? Yes, here is Rep. Betty McCollum laughing it up with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Or is it Betty McCollum laughing it up with St. Paul City Councilperson Debbie Montgomery? It's hard to say.

Does this mean McCollum is complicit in facilitating the proliferation of nuclear weapons to rogue states? I doubt it. As we all know, sometimes you just end up full-body embracing a brutal tyrant at a cocktail party. No crime in that.

In related news, Brokeback Mountain scores eight Academy Award nominations.