SOME OBSERVATIONS: I don’t know; I must be missing something here. While what Rep. Mark Foley of Florida did is not excusable and he deserves the obloquy now falling on him and his reputation, it seems to me that a lot of the Democrats calling for his head today are the very same people who, eight years ago, were telling us that sex didn’t matter. Given that Mr. Clinton actually did have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, and that Mr. Foley is, to date, accused of nothing more than sending dirty e-mails to Congressional pages, there appears to be a discrepancy in the reaction coming from the Democrats. It may well be that sending lurid emails to a minor is a more serious crime than Presidential fellatio, but the last time I looked thought crime was still an Orwellian literary device and not an actual offense. Unless, of course, the standard has shifted since the last time we went down this particular road and now sexual behavior does matter, especially a month before the mid-term elections.

I also hear that Bob Woodward has written a book entitled State of Denial, wherein he charges that the Bush Administration’s Iraq strategy is, and has been since the beginning of the war, profoundly flawed. Mr. Woodward is now out on the talk show circuit flogging his newest tome, which he is certainly entitled to do, this being America and all, but I don’t think I’ll be buying his book any time soon. There’s just something about the idea of paying thirty dollars for information I can get for fifty cents in the Daily News that I find deeply unappealing.