I interrupt the presidential campaign to bring you an important question:

Can we get serious here? About hyper-serious things?

It's time.

I pick up the New York Times, and I read the headline, "McCain Cuts Fund-Raiser." How's that? "Senator John McCain's presidential campaign canceled a fund-raiser at the home of an 86-year-old oilman, Clayton Williams, after the campaign faced questions about comments Mr. Williams made in the 1990 campaign for Texas governor."

Note it: 1990. The hair of a now no-doubt senescent newspaper columnist was dark and plentiful then. Hillary was first lady of Arkansas. etc.

"At the time, Mr. Williams, a Republican who was running against Ann Richards, made a joke about rape [correction: He quoted the old Dorothy Parker 'relax and enjoy it' gag]. He also said he would campaign against Ms. Richards, a Democrat, as he would deal with a cow on his ranch: 'Head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt.' He later apologized for the remarks. The campaign canceled the fund-raiser on Friday after it faced questions from ABC News and The Washington Post."

Ah, well, you know how it is when nothing much is going on -- no war, no inflation, no soaring gasoline prices, no subprime mortgage debacle, no Iranian bomb, no terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo, no crisis over how to fund retirement.

Thank the ink-stained gods of journalism for Claytie Williams, or, rather, thank the Democrats' war room for feeding the journalism gods so vital a piece of information that an elderly, one-time Texas gubernatorial candidate and McCain supporter misspoke, back around the time retail gasoline averaged $1.10 a gallon. Boy, what would we do without these guys?

Poor Claytie. A nicer fellow you couldn't hope to meet. He likely would have made a very good governor of Texas -- certainly a better one than the clueless, if cheerfully brazen, Ann Richards made. Unfortunately, he failed to realize you don't joke around with the media, 'cause they'll getcha. Continued...