I’m you, dear readers. Well, actually, I’m not. But I’m also not a witch, so at least I’ve got that going for me.

The above is of course a reference to Delaware’s favourite Wiccan of Wilmington, Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell, who began her most recent television advertisement by assuring viewers that she, indeed, is “not a witch.” In past political years this might have been considered a bit low-brow, to actually have to assure the voting public you didn’t spend most days at dusk swooping over the heads of the Lollipop Guild.

The bar has been raised among this year’s crop of weirdos and wackadoos seeking higher office in America. If you don’t have the Second Amendment tattooed on your buttocks or actually think you’re The Walrus, don’t even try and claim to be among the craziest third of aspiring politicos on the current American landscape.

For Jay Leno may have once called politics “show business for ugly people.” But the larger truth these days is that a run for political office is a surefire way for those seeking a moment in the spotlight, but lacking any discernible talent or a handle on the truth, to have their hour in the headlines. It’s show business for crazy people.

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You know, Linda, I believe in the First Amendment, too. (If I can put up with Fred Phelps, I can put up with anything.) But it's a tad disingenuous to pretend that this type of WWE programming isn't specifically aimed at demeaning women for a certain appreciative segment of the viewers. That's how you made your money, after all!

And it raises what would be a much better question than the one asked by Amanpour: If you would do this because it made money, what wouldn't you do for money? Where, exactly, is that line? Because as you know, U.S. Senators have quite a lot of power and you should answer that question.

But let's not ignore the sheer entertainment value of this question, either. Our national politics have deteriorated to the point where we're asking a candidate for the U.S. Senate if an S&M theme is suitable family entertainment:

AMANPOUR: They say a vote for Linda McMahon is a slap in the face for Connecticut women. the whole issue of the women in the ring and what they call degrading and demeaning behavior towards women. I'm a woman, you're a woman --

MCMAHON: Yes

AMANPOUR: What do you really think when you see some of that go on in the ring? The girl who is told to get on all fours, I think by your own husband and bark like a dog? Are you comfortable with that?

MCMAHON: Well WWE programming has changed from being TV14 over the years, which that's the time you were talking about, it was called the Attitude Era, into now being PG, rated by the networks as PG. I'm happy with the content today.

AMANPOUR: As a senator if you could stop it would you stop that kind of depiction against women on -- on the public airwaves? Would you at least lobby or campaign against it?

MCMAHON: I do believe in the first amendment rights and content --

AMANPOUR: So, you don't think there's anything wrong with it?

MCMAHON: Well, content providers are clearly creating scenarios-- from an entertainment point of view, I think that you either elect to go to a movie or you elect to watch a program so, I'm a strong proponent for first amendment rights. At the same time, at WWE, women really are powerful women and the programming content, as I've said, has changed from TV14 to TVPG. I much prefer it today.

Here's the entire WWE clip. Tell me what you think:

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Ah, the piteous whine of the crested Republican, heard everywhere whenever Democrats hit back: It's those mean liberals and their 'politics of personal destruction'!

Of which, of course, they are perfectly innocent.

Thus we had Sarah Palin last night, kvetching all over Sean Hannity's Fox News show, about how the recent poll numbers ginned up at Fox showing Republicans winning the entire planet, "because Sean, what this means is that the left will become even more and more desperate and adamant to destroy those who are running on a common-sense conservative agenda."

They whined especially loudly about Alan Grayson's "Taliban Dan" ad and other "smears":

Palin: Remember what they are doing -- this is coming from Obama's presidential campaign book, which goes back to Alinsky's campaign book, Rules For Radicals, which Obama and Michelle Obama have quoted from. And that is the politics of personal destruction, perhaps will be the only thing you have on your opponent, and so you make things up about them. You lie, you spin, you do whatever you can, and you use a complicit media to assist you in this, left-wing media to assist you in this. So these candidates just need to be prepared for those rules of radicals to be applied to them. They need to stay on message, they need to stay optimistic.

Yeah, we remember the 2008 campaign, when Palin was busy attacking Obama as a radical who "palled around with terrorists" and making stuff up about him. Come to think of it, she's still doing it here! But hey, that's not personal destruction. Nuh-uh.

A few minutes later, Hannity ran Linda McMahon's nasty ad accusing Richard Blumenthal of being a liar, calling it "hard hitting and truthful" -- when in fact it's actually just a willful distortion and a smear job of the lowest order. Indeed, everyone in Connecticut is aware that it's all just a McMahon hit job.

But Hannity loved it. So did Palin.

Figures.