let's talk republicans, c street, abortion, & beirut (the band not the city)

Let's talk Sanford. That would be Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carolina, GOP Superstar and once upon a time potential 2012 candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. Too bad he blew that political capital (among other things) south of the border this past weekend, hobnobbing with a hot young thing (well okay, 43) in Buenos Aires instead of spending Father's Day with his wife and, you know, kids.

And what name did he mention as helping him deal with this torrid affair over the last few months? C Street. That would be the name of a D.C. rooming house for a good old boys Christian political organization (or something) known as the Fellowship or, alternatively, the Family (seriously!). They wine and dine together, and give each other marital advice and good Christian counseling when it comes to having extramarital affairs. To greater or lesser effect, apparently, given that dear old Mark thought it would be a good move to take a tax-payer funded holiday to Argentina (though he has since announced he will reimburse the State for his booty call costs). And then have his staff lie about where he was. When he should have been maybe, you know, governing.

Another member of the so-called C Street Gang? John Ensign. Yes, that John Ensign. Clearly they need better counseling. Or chemical castration. Or, what the hell, let's go all out and make it physical castration, at least for these morons who so adamantly oppose certain other people trying to have normal, healthy, happy marriages.

And yet another stand-out member of C Street is the one and only Tom Coburn (my personal favorite in this little bag o' bad boys). That would be Tom Coburn, junior senator from Oklahoma, OB/GYN who believes not only that all abortions should be illegal (though unwanted sterilizations are good to go), but that all abortion providers should be put to death (except, presumably, himself, despite having performed several abortions in the past). (No word on whether the women choosing to have the abortions should also be put to death, though it seems pretty infantalizing to not give the women equal responsibility -- what, it's all the doctors' fault? But I suppose it's hard, even for this blowhard, to argue that over a million women a year should be executed for wanting to end their pregnancies.)

That would also be the Tom Coburn who opposed the Democrats' attempt to expand SCHIP, a government program to provide health care for children, but recently proposed founding an "Office of Unborn Children's Health." Because, as everyone surely knows, the unborn should have access to government-funded health care but for the already-born, that's called socialism, and thus very very bad.

On another note, I've been a little bit obsessed with Beirut recently. That would be Beirut the band, not Beirut the city (though I did once love a book by the name of Beirut Fragments, and which was in fact about Beirut the city, and probably pre-existed Beirut the band). This current obsession is a nice change from the last couple weeks' preoccupation with Damien Rice's oh so tragic love gone wrong songs. I've become a sucker for bands with stringed instruments, horns, or, apparently, an accordion.



Also: Postcards from Italy, Ederlezi, Elephant Gun, Gulag Orkestar, My Night With the Prostitute