Sports fans like to dream of classic match-ups that because of time or distance are impossible, ie., Ali v. Marciano, the '60's era Celtics v. the Magic Era Lakers, McEnroe v. Sampras, Tiger Woods v. Bobby Jones, etc. Political junkies have dream match-ups too, of which one example would be a hypothetical race between Jeb Bush and Gray Davis, the nation's two most odious elected officials. Davis has pulled away in his reelection battle, mainly because the GOP managed to nominate someone who combined far right politics with a business background that out-sleazes the nation's reigning Kleptocrat. To put it another way, I'm pretty liberal (err, I mean, "populist"), but if Riordan had been the Republican nominee, I would have not only voted for him, but I would have contemplated walking precincts to elect him.

Jeb Bush, though, is in a different league altogether, as his recent attempt to appoint some religious wacko to head his state's utterly incompetent Child Welfare Department indicates. His defense of the nominee, as detailed in the above link, is to claim that his opponents are motivated by "bigotry against fundamentalist Christians". To which I add, GUILTY AS CHARGED, gov'na. There have to be some standards by which we can judge certain beliefs and behaviour, and I see nothing wrong with being prejudiced against Nazis, Klansmen, bullies, pedophiles, fans of the Washington NFL team, the Taliban, wife-beaters, and nutcases who believe that "smiting children with a rod" is acceptable government policy because the Bible tells them so.