O'Malley's Marching on

Rejoice! In last week's broad Democratic election victories across the U.S., one winner stands out from the usual crowd of suits: Martin O'Malley, mayor of Baltimore and all-round hunk, who has been elected governor of Maryland.

'Irish' to his core, O'Malley has until recently fronted his own Celtic rock group, O'Malley's March, until pressure from his political career forced him to temporarily hang up his guitar. If California can elect a knuckle-head Austrian actor as governor, then Maryland is even more fortunate, because O'Malley can perform on a concert stage and seems to be a shrewd politician as well.

I wish this election had been a total rout for the Republican Party, in the manner of the defeat visited upon the Conservative Party in Britain in 1997 -- a total, crushing, humiliation. Setting aside my contempt for religion of all kinds, and judging the Republican party by its own professed faith -- has there ever before been such a vile bunch of fakes professing Christianity while acting like snakes? Probably...