Anybody watching The West Wing?

They sure are showing the Republicans for the lying snarky operatives that they are. Now the Vinnick character played by Alan Alda is actually a straight arrow, but his campaign staff are as low as they get. First they tell him to distance himself from a nuclear accident, but he says he will go answer the press's questions because he should and he does.

Then they find that Santos has been paying checks to a single mother in Texas. His advisors want to smear Santos with it but Vinnick says he doesn't want to do that. So although Alda's character isn't a snark, the people he is surrounded with are shown as being the lowlifes we have all learned to know in the last five years.

Would any real Republican candidate go through such a soul searching as Vinnick did about using the explosive information in Santos's briefcase? Hell no! Did Bush discuss the morality of smearing McCain with totally false stories of him having an illegitimate black child. Hell No! Did he waste a moment of sleep over the Swift Boat Veterans? Yeah right.

I love the West Wing because it shows us a fantasy land in which intelligent, genuinely decent people try and do what's best for the country.

And just to give Democrats equal time, imagine what would happen of some overweight intern flashed her thong at President Bartlett. Why he'd have Lily Tomlin in the Oval Office in a minute hauling her ass out of the White House and assigning her to count paperclips in the lowest dungeon of the Pentagon.

of reality, I thought it was good that they did show how low they can stoop. His aide steals Santos briefcase, finds incriminating evidence in it that he wants to use to smear Santos with and rationalizes it by saying the electorate deserves to know because that's what democracy is about.

Santos straightens Vinnick out about the evidence not being what it seems to be. Yes, it's too good to be true, but I thank them for showing what they are capable of.

The show was infinately better when Aaron Sorkin was writing it, and the Republicans did look like the scum that they truly are. Bartlet didn't run against an Arnold Vinick fantasy Republican figure in the 2002 campaign. He ran against Rob Ritchie who is a Bush clone. The show clearly points out why it is better to have Bartlet running the Country than Bush err Ritchie.

campaigning is a cut-throat business--too often, any edge is a good thing...