Upstate Ranking

Call us a snob, we don't care. But we've always felt that the essence of democracy is very smart, very urbane, very expensively educated people pretending to be bluff, no-nonsense, commonsensical sons of the soil. Not acting stupid, as such, but definitely avoiding the epithet "too clever by half", as hurtful in American English as it is in English English. Some people are better at it that others, but understand that this is part of capable people becoming electable.

Which is why we've got so fond of Hilary Clinton, and we cheer whenever she goes haring off after a video game company or abortion. We really don't think she cares that much, but understand that it's the price you pay for getting a non-moron or -maniac elected. It's the same reason why top Park Sloper Senator Chuck Schumer is on the peculiar side of so many farming votes - it plays well upstate.

So, we've been following the Jeanine Pirro announcement with some interest. Pirro wants to try and snare Hilary's Senate seat, and wants to be branded as a tough lady lawyer with a slightly roguish husband. We'll leave the impeccably-polished snark to Gawker, which notes that society still takes a dimmer view of tax fraud than shagging an intern.

Jeanine Pirro is like the NY Post in human form, a brash but somewhat dim and sensationalist politician. Pretty nasty, too. From the News:

"Trust me, my full-time is a lot better than her part-time," Pirro sniped.

To say that the NY Republican party is somewhat debased from its Dewey/Rockefeller apogee would be an understatement. look, we know that Pirro's going to get beaten like a gong, and that she's pro-choice, which is always good to a bit of Republican baiting, but we need to get not one, but two comparisons out the way. There's a third, but it's put together by barely literate photoshop apes at Free Republic and is thus disqualified. The first, as we mentioned, we'll leave to Gawker.

Jeanine's record is, how shall we put this?, slim. She's done some sterling work for abused women, and is apparently more articulate than the bulk of Fox News commentators. But her crowning achievement has been a series of stings against internet sex predators. All good work, keeping perverts off the streets and all that, but if we were the dirty tricks wing of Clinton 2006, we'd be subtly comparing the politician that designed a (admittedly doomed) national healthcare plan with the politican that impersonates kids on the internet. Is that fair? No. Do we nonetheless believe it? No comment. Should Pirro have gone off and ran for state attorney general instead? HELL YES.