I really don't want to be terribly intemperate, but after several weeks of being very serious as I research the Bush administration's moronic approach to fiscal policy, I feel the need to sound off for just a moment about how moronic this attempt to ban flag-burning is. Joe Klein wrote in The Running Mate, his excellent companion novel to Primary Colors, that the House used to be "wall-to-wall constituent service" because of how frequently Representatives faced reelection. It is insane to think that a flag-burning fight will best serve the urgent needs of many Americans. It is insane to think that such an amendment, regardless of how you feel about flag desecration and free speech, is more urgent a priority than hunger and poverty and homelessness and war. These so-called protectors of patriotism should be spending their time calling for a reasonable stablization plan and exit strategy for Iraq instead of engaging in cyncial, cheap, and dishonorable political manuvering.