Celebrity News

"Sorry, guys.”

“We apologize."

"Sorry.” By now we're sorry we ever heard the word. From Tiger to Toyota to even D.C. City Councilman, former Mayor and nonstop delinquent Marion Barry, they're all "sorry."

On Thursday night I appeared on "The Keith Olbermann Show" on MSNBC, discussing John Mellencamp and the Indiana Senate campaign. I drew a contrast between Mellencamp and his probable opponent, former Republican senator and later bank lobbyist Dan Coats.

Would Hoosiers rather have a senator fighting for workers to keep their jobs, homeowners to keep their homes and small America to survive and prosper? Or a senator who spent years going to fundraisers and then lobbying for those who foreclose on homeowners and outsource jobs?

I also expressed outrage toward those Republicans who want the president to fail so much, they also appear to want America to fail. The show can be seen here.

I first heard the idea of John Cougar Mellencamp running for the Senate in Indiana when Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation advocated this on MSNBC, and I wholeheartedly agree. This is a truly inspired idea. John Mellencamp would make an outstanding and even brilliant United States senator and represents exactly the spirit and soul the Democratic Party should stand for.

This is not the time or place for me to critique Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). I will say that when I first came to Washington I worked for his father, Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), who I believe was one of the greatest senators who ever served. Read more...

Our new year has begun with grave warning from a select few of America’s venerable and good. Bob Herbert, one of the oldest and most mature liberal voices and still the best at The New York Times, says this morning, “Our society is in deep trouble and the fixes currently in the works are in no way adequate to the enormous challenges we’re facing.” While Peggy Noonan, the venerable and the good at The Wall Street Journal, warns this year that we may fall apart. William Daley, who stayed at his post while the others were playing golf with Bill, warned the Democrats directly that if they don’t move to the center they will not only lose in 2010 but long into the future. One symptom of the illness which plagues us: So many New York Democrats still yearn for Bill. They suffer from low-grade viral utopianism. They listen to Bono. It is killing them. It could kill us all.

From today's Washington Times:

When you have been trained to believe that you are beyond the rules of social decorum, it seems natural to act out your darker impulses. Indulging your personal vanity can be intoxicating. I suspect that Tiger Woods' sexual exploits are fairly representative of how most young men, bombarded with wealth and adulation, would act. It should not be surprising that Woods gave in to his impulses. In fact, it seems like the most human thing in the world.

It was a good movie: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” But now the hidden dragon has turned around and bitten the crouching tiger in the butt.

Gatorade has become the first major sponsor to drop Tiger Woods. They don’t want him selling their sports drink anymore. And you can bet they won’t be the last. Can Buick or Nike be far behind?

When the great historian Robert Massie, author of Dreadnaugh, went back to find the root of the Second World War, the Great War and the rise and fall of Victoria, he found the singular warrior of Britannia who, in one astonishing afternoon in 1805, turned Napoleon’s fleet away from England, Lord Nelson. We face tough times ahead in the world again today. Unfortunately, we have no Nelson. But we do have Levi Johnston. Possibly he will save us.

Last week when Gore Vidal said a bunch of stupid things about Barack Obama, I left him alone. He’s old and prone to saying anything that will get his name in print. Remember, he was completely inconsistent during the primaries, flip-flopping between Obama and Clinton. He said things that many people observed were racist. Everyone left him alone.

Today in The Atlantic, Vidal said he never should have supported Obama and “experience mattered.” He then went on to suggest that the 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski had sex with was a “young hooker” and that Roman was only persecuted out of anti-Semitism.

After all the punditry last week about the legality and morality of Roman Polanski’s extradition, two recently publicized items are relevant.

1.    Those who demean the crime Polanski was charged with — “the so-called” crime, as one film producer called it — should read the extracts of the grand jury testimony of the victim. It is available on the Internet, here, here and here.

Roman Polanski is shocked that after fleeing from his sentencing at his criminal trial and remaining a fugitive for over three decades, the California justice system still wants to prosecute him. He was arrested in Zurich and awaits extradition. Notable friends in the film business and politicians in France are urging that bygones be bygones. The man is 76 — why hassle the talented movie director?