On Taking Unserious Politicians Seriously

So much of what Big Sarah Palin and Little Ricky Santorum say is so nutty that there is a temptation to ignore then. After all, both are attention freaks and one would hope that if they were starved of that commodity they would go away.

Alas, it is not that simple for the simple reason that both continue to make noises about running for president, and so long as that is a possibility, they have to be taken . . . well, if not exactly seriously, then something or other.

Santorum, who is riding the Torture Got Osama bandwagon, is very much in the news for his latest fusillade -- his astonishing assertion that John McCain, who had to endure six years of the kind of torture in a North Vietnamese POW camp that was de rigueur during George Bush's first term, "doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works" in pushing back against torture apologists.

Then there is Palin, who while yet to make a fool of herself this week, has been quietly greasing the skids for a presidential run by soliciting donations to SarahPAC and now is running head-and-head with Mitt Romney in at least one poll of GOP presidential wannabes after Mike Huckabee bowed out and Donald Trump flamed out.