CatherineRhodes.com

How can anyone not like this man, he is deadly charming.

Lighten up with the symbols of patriotism. "He doth protest too much."

Do the Republicans know that their debate setting looks like the soundstage for the “Colbert Report” — which is a parody! Of you! Although W. didn’t seem to get the joke about Colbert, at least not at that famous White House Press Club Dinner where he was asked to M.C. for a night of great comedy, although W. wasn’t laughing.

Much has been said about the “oops” moment from Rick Perry. If he’s going to have a brainfreeze about that, what other third item might he forget during a potential presidency? Let’s see, I’ve got the Axis of Evil here, Iraq, North Korea and…um…oops. But he wasn’t the only nincompoop on the stage. How about Newt Gingrich telling the university system, the news media and the Occupy Wall Streeters that they don’t know anything about history. What a pedantic jerk. But the biggest douchebag moment came when Herman Cain referred to the woman who has held the highest post ever in our government, former Speaker of the House Pelosie, as “Princess Nancy.” Talk about a cringe moment.

Mitt Romney won the debate handsdown without even uttering a word, just by standing back and letting his opponents self-immolate.

As a sidenote: my favorite Press Corp Dinner moment of all time was when Seth Meyers called out then “candidate” Donald Trump for owning the Miss America Pageant. “It will sure make it easier to find a vice presidential candidate,” he cracked.

So brilliant it's scary

Walks the walk

My favorite hour of TV is “This Week with Christiane Amanpour,” the best of the 8 am Sunday talk show line-up (now that Tim Russert is gone, R.I.P.).

Christiane and Hillary: Sigh, a moment of pure heaven to see these two accomplished, highly respected women operating at the top of their game discussing foreign policy. This is what Gloria, Betty and Simone were talkin’ about.

Mitt Romney’s illegal comment: As Jake Tapper said, a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth.

John McCain: Still a grumpy old man. He was whining that nobody was with him on the surge. “They were wrong then and they’re wrong now” (to bring the troops home after 10 years of a senseless war). If you’re going to play that game, how about this: They were wrong about the WMDs, wrong about the pre-emptive strike doctrine, so why should we trust anything the Neocon Republicans say on the matter of Iraq?

Arab Spring: rolls along without any American invasions. Elections in Tunisia where even women vote, Ghadaffi is overthrown in Libya.

Politics Makes for Odd Bedfellows: Here are two: Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO and Tom Donahue of the Chamber. They both are on the stump for rebuilding infrastructure, which will create jobs in transportation, construction, manufacturing. The reason the GOP in Congress won’t go for it is because their only goal is to make Obama look bad. If the country goes to hell before the election, that’s just collateral damage.

I spent the day in the “jury holding pen” at the Superior Court in Downtown L.A. today, and must say it was a rather heartening experience. The whole process was extremely efficient, administered by bureaucrats who were remarkably unbureaucratic, even funny. The idea is that a pool of jurors waits in a big room to see if any of the courts in the building needs to form a panel. If so, names are randomly drawn and those jurors set off for voir dire, aka jury selection. The rest of us stay behind to wait some more.

The room was a comfortable temp, had cushy seats, computers for public use and free WI-FI. There were vending machines and clean bathrooms. I spent the day reading and checking email on my iPhone. Not altogether unpleasant. I didn’t ever get called, but left with a positive impression of the criminal justice system.

Laughing all the way to the bank

The Founders are rolling over in their graves

The Republican party has been described as a “big tent,” but I always thought the campers within the GOP made some pretty strange bunkmates. For example, the country club William F. Buckley conservatives and the Palin-O’Donnell-Bachman creationists from the “real America.” But now a fire has started in the form of the debt ceiling vote, forcing a showdown between two inhabitants of the big tent — the Wall Streeters and the Tea Party. Timber! Stay clear of falling tent-poles!

Over at ABC News, Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, who is described as a “firebrand” and “kingmaker,” has strong words for the class of 2010: vote for the increase and you will be “gone.”

Meanwhile, the fatcats on Wall Street are skittish about their precious credit markets. So, the real kingmaker, Tom Donahue at the U.S. Chamber, had his own message for newly-elected representatives who say they aren’t going to raise the debt ceiling and will shut down government: “We’ll get rid of you.”

Looks like a good old-fashioned showdown: See you in the bleachers. I’ll bring popcorn.

I never understood the right’s antipathy for ‘government’ —whatever that term means to them. I keep asking my dad who exactly is ‘the government’ but can’t get a straight answer. Is it the mailman, the community college professor, the ranger at Whitney who issues hiking permits?

Maybe ‘the government’ refers to the canon of law, to rules and bureaucracy. I think we all agree there are dumb laws.  As Phillip K. Howard pointed out in his book, The Death of Common Sense, about the proliferation of regulations that just don’t make sense. My fav example is the parking lot at the Whitney trailhead that was required to by the ADA to have designated handicapped parking. I’m here to tell you, anyone in a wheelchair or on crutches was not going to be summiting Whitney anytime soon.

213,000 people may quit from the warnings

But what about the things that only government can do, such as in the realm of public health. On the front page of the LA Times today is a story about new graphics on the packs of cigarettes to discourage smoking and another about restaurants who are required to show calorie counts changing their menus to offer healthier, lower-fat cuisine.

The right might say that government is intruding on private industry. But let’s be honest, are tobacco companies and restaurants going to voluntarily provide nformation that may discourage the consumption of their product? The FDA is not trying to outlaw unhealthy products — there’s a measure of individual responsibility — but is merely advocating full disclosure for consumers.

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese and 46 million Americans smoke. These are public health issues that ultimately impact everyone, creating a justifiable and welcome role for government intervention.