corrente

Such a sad, sad story in the Nashville Tennessean today. It's a book review, of a new contribution to great literature (AND Deep Political Perceptive Thought) by one of the greats in both fields:

Sen. Trent Lott accuses Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of betraying him during a GOP revolt in a new, tell-all biography that expresses little remorse for the racially tinged remarks that led to Lott's loss of power and Frist's ascension.

Frist, a Tennessee Republican who replaced Lott as the GOP leader, comes off as traitorous. The book generally divides other Republicans into either heroes or villains, depending on whether Lott saw them as allies or enemies during his downfall.

So sad, so very sad. Heroism and tragedy are the themes of all great literature, are they not? As illustrated by the wonderful old song about the woman who saw a snake freezing on the ground, and picked it up and warmed it in her bosom, until it recovered enough strength to bite the crap out of her:

"I saved you," cried the woman
"And you've bitten me, but why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in."