Here's to James

We should declare January 21 James L. Petigru Day in South Carolina. For those who forget, Petigru was a South Carolina congressman who, in 1860, responded to secession with the words "South Carolina is too small for a republic, and too large for a lunatic asylum."

This comes back to the notion that Newt Gingrich's serial infidelity, with oak leaf clusters, seems to be working for the speaker rather than otherwise. I'm hardly the first person to observe that evangelical family values come to a screeching halt when it comes to marital fidelity, divorce and such-like.

So we have the rednecks cheering on Newt's infidelity, whilst they curse Captain Brylcreem's Cayman Islands bank accounts. Meanwhile the palaeo-Republicans, who have long since regretted the day they courted the evangelical nutters, are all for Mitt's offshore money and not too keen on Newt's industrial infidelity.

Petigru, wherever he is, must be laughing his arse off. His shade will be sorry when the clown circus moves on to Florida.

Just when I thought I was done with South Carolina

We have not only got Alvin Greene, but a challenge to his "irregular" Democratic primary win.

Is it true that the South Carolina legislature is going to make Send in the Clowns the state anthem? Probably not: we couldn't displace one of them good ol' southern anthems for something from, lord help us, Broadway!

One would hardly be surprised by irregularities in a state whose entire electoral process needs a dose of salts. However, what you get when you let "agin the gummint" get totally out of control is Alvin Greenes, people who get votes precisely because no one ever heard of them and because they aren't in office now. Vic Rawl may manage to overturn Greene, or not, but there will be more Alvins by November. There will be scores in the primaries, and while the fringe candidates may hand victory to the other side much of the time, some of them will get elected.

That should be educational. It doesn't really improve the public business to have corrupt, cynical and venal politicians replaced by people for whom utter cluelessness is an ideology. Nor will it improve things if we make the doors to Congress revolving, changing from one fool to the next every two years or, regrettably in the Senate, six.

Mitch McConnell seems suddenly to have realised that things have got quite messy, and partly on his watch. As he stares around for a solution, the obvious one seems to elude him: Run the damn government.