"Country First," My Aunt Fanny

By Zamboni

We're hearing a lot of comparisons of the Palin V.P. choice to the McGovern campaign's failure to properly scrutinize Senator Thomas Eagleton back in 1972.

Poor Senator Eagleton. We hope that he's not spinning in his grave somewhere at the idea of his name and Governor Palin's forever linked in some "bad Veep choices" sweepstakes. He was such a fundamentally decent man — a much more worthy person than the trashy wench from Alaska.

But the media's focus on Governor Palin misses an important point: The story is so much less about her than it is about John McCain. What does his messy handling of the V.P. nomination say about how he'd run the country?

The process, embarrassingly detailed in today's Washington Post, is damning enough. But just think... In a time described by George W. Bush last night as one of "danger" for the country, the 72-year-old Senator McCain decided that the politics of gender and abortion trumped national security.

We cats are really, really bothered by this — so much so that we don't just HISS at Senator McCain, we lunge at him and bury our teeth deep in his ankle.

Perhaps he could benefit from some of that shock therapy that Tom Eagleton had.