The David Vitter Saga

My first thought at hearing Sen. David Vitter's apology for appearing in a Washington, D.C., madame's little black book was "Hoo boy, here we go again, another Louisiana political scandal."

My second thought was to wonder exactly what he did, and when, and did he apologize to his family back whenever it occurred, or is it still occurring, and did all the apologies only come after he was about to be "outed" in public?

My third thought, which has prevailed since the news broke, has been "what a relief." It's actually kind of a diversion from the droning, two years later, about Katrina this and Katrina that, and who's going to give money to whom, and whose fault was it that the levees broke, and why does the Road Home money not seem to be on the hot seat any more even though it still hasn't brought many home at all. You know, all that stuff.

It's not even the Dollar Bill sort of scandal, with bribery and payoffs and networks of corruption branching like a spider web into all the dark places between New Orleans and Washington.

It's just a little indiscretion, right?

Still, and this is my fourth thought, can't we just have a nice, clean politician for a change? Wasn't that who David Vitter was supposed to be?