[Deleted rant about Douglas Holtz-Eakin]

I've deleted a rant I had here about Doug Holtz-Eakin's doing more sleazy lying on the campaign trail, because only his former life as a reputable academic made it potentially comment-worthy. But face it, the guy really isn't worth talking about any more. Saruman, I expel you from the order of Wizards ... Although on second thought he reminds me more, at this point, of Emil Jannings in the latter stages of The Blue Angel.

UPDATE: As the old saying goes, we [meaning academics and people who care about the truth of what we say] didn't leave him, he left us. The question is why. I have to think he doesn't plan to return to anything like an academic setting, and has a fundamental career change in mind such that he doesn't care about his reputation in the old circles. Perhaps it's just my own limited imagination that finds this baffling - not the desire to do something different, but the rejection of intellectual honor and honesty (paying off reputationally) as personal values.