Politics

You do have to hand it to them. The chutzpah is breathtaking. Republican deliverers of The Message this week in Philadelphia have taken to weaving the phrase "the politics of personal destruction" into their patter. This, in their pitch, refers to the pugnacity of Al Gore, as typified by the Democrats' avid, immediate attacks on Dick Cheney's voting record. Rarely does hypocrisy reach such a distilled essence. Let's be clear about several things. Ad hominem venom is indeed a stubborn virus in our politics.

BLACKS ARE voting for Obama. Women for Clinton. Republicans would vote for a moose if it were a Republican. Does anyone vote with their heads? How stupid the public is. Take McCain. He plays on being a POW. That doesn't make him a hero. I was in Vietnam. I don't sit and preach about it. He wants us to stay in Iraq. Anyone who is still with Bush has to be an idiot. The talk-show guys are the best - what robots! Rich Colaianni, Blackwood, N.J.

Bowing to public outcry and the dictates of the state Constitution, Frank Serafini, convicted perjurer, will at long last resign from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. You'd like to think that makes the score: The People 1, Politics, 0. But he did hang around long enough to meet the Republican Party's tactical goal of delaying a special election until after the April 4 primary. So maybe the real score, sadly, remains: Politics 1, the Constitution 0.

Edgar C. Campbell, ward leader, clerk of Quarter Sessions Court and former city councilman who died Wednesday at 84, was known as the dean of black politics in Philadelphia. He was a soft-spoken man who lived and survived in the fickle world of politics in a career that spanned six decades by following a political philosophy that your word was your bond. He wore the mantle of dean easily and well. He was often sought out by party leaders and younger politicians of all races and ethnic origin who wanted his advice and support.

BARBRA STREISAND sang at the Wachovia Center the other night to a sellout crowd. Barbra also politicked, using an actor portraying the president, about her dislike for our president. She has the right to do that, but what strikes me is the fact that many, if not most, of our Hollywood types seem to think that, because they have our attention while on stage, that makes them smarter than the rest of us and gives them the mission of preaching their holier-than-thou politics to us. People spent a lot of money to attend Barbra's concert because Barbra is one of the finest singers on this earth.

In recent years many men have begun to realize that for them and their father's generation, the necessities of work and career and the rising divorce rate have eroded their relationship to family, community and the natural world. This frustration and alienation has led an increasing number of men to gather in a loosely organized men's movement. Most commentators don't seem to know how to react to this movement. The poet Robert Bly's best-selling book "Iron John" has encouraged thousands of men to venture into wilderness retreats to rediscover the mythic dimensions of masculinity.

WE NEED election reform, and we need it fast! Not tomorrow, not the next day, but right now. We need laws that have teeth. We want to know what you are going to do for us, not what the other guy did or didn't do. Talk about yourself, and your plans, not what your opponent does (or what you'd have us believe he or she did). Let him or her tell us what their plans are, not what you think they are. Tell us what your agenda is, and don't tell us what your opponent is going to do or not do. Anyone who talks trash about his or her opponent should be immediately banned from further campaigning.

So you're wondering, how can anybody argue for appointing judges when the mayor's wife - among a dozen politically connected lawyers and judges - is nominated for a seat on the federal court in Philadelphia? Fact is, the appointment of federal judges - while it often yields high- quality candidates (like corporate lawyer and, now, U.S. District Judge- nominee Marjorie O. Rendell) - is really a political selection process. A U.S. senator - in this case, Sen. Harris Wofford - names a committee to come up with names.

WOMEN IN POWER: THE SECRETS OF LEADERSHIP Nonfiction. By Dorothy W. Cantor and Toni Bernay with Jean Stoess Houghton Mifflin. $21.95 Women in Power, a revealing psychological portrait of how women have struggled to share the political spotlight in this country, could not have been written at a better time. Already, with Carol Moseley Braun's upset victory in last month's Democratic Senate primary in Illinois, 1992 is being proclaimed the Year of the Woman in national politics.

Democratic colleagues of New Jersey Sen. Robert G. Torricelli were quick to minimize the significance of the Senate ethics committee's judgment of his misbehavior. "A relatively mild rebuke," pronounced fellow New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle announced that the "sensational" allegations against Mr. Torricelli had been "proven false and without foundation" - an imaginative reading that suggested itself to no one else. . . . Last week [Sen. Torricelli]

TOMORROW, a tiny sliver of the city's residents will look at a scroll of names you've probably never heard and grant to a few the power to sentence criminals, negotiate divorces and adjudicate lawsuits for years to come. "This is what I call a committeeman's election," said 33rd Ward Democratic Leader Donna Aument, of Kensington, referring to the power that members of the city's Democratic committees wield in off-year elections. Her daughter, Marnie Aument Loughrey, is running for Traffic Court.

WASHINGTON - The firestorm buffeting the IRS intensified Friday as lawmakers began what they promised would be an extensive effort to learn whether there was any political motivation or White House involvement in the agency's recently acknowledged misdeeds. Fueling those concerns, J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's top tax watchdog, said Friday that he had informed top Treasury officials last summer about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status.

PETARE, Venezuela - Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas. Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons. He's clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela's notoriously crime-infested capital.

Got a minute? I've got 10 people you should meet. Exactly a minute. Six seconds for each. You can do it on Vine, Twitter's mobile app that lets people make and share six-second video loops known as "vines. " You could get a superfast introduction to the glories of this video-looping app via some of its budding auteurs, people like: Pete Heacock, proprietor of First Capital Pictures in North Philadelphia. His vines are suspense stories, jokes, self-portraits in the windows of passing trains . Three of his vines were nominated for awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

WASHINGTON - Political considerations influenced the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used five days after the deadly Sept. 11 assault in Benghazi, Libya, with State Department and other senior administration officials asking that references to terror groups and prior warnings be deleted, according to department e-mails. The latest disclosures Friday raised new questions about whether the Obama administration tried to play down any terrorist factor in the attack on a diplomatic compound just weeks before the November presidential election.

KEARNY, N.J. - On Wednesday, the topic was drug treatment and his Democratic costar was former Gov. Jim McGreevey. But the scene was familiar. In an election year, Republican Gov. Christie has been appearing regularly with prominent Democrats in a move that analysts say backs up his campaign boast that he can find common ground with political adversaries. Since last week, he has had joint appearances with Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star who played at Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine's campaign kickoff event four years ago; with the powerful Democratic leaders in their stronghold Essex and Camden Counties; and with the leaders of both chambers of the Democratic-led Legislature.

NEWARK, N.J. - Answering questions about weight-loss surgery he had kept secret for 12 weeks, Gov. Christie on Tuesday rejected a political motivation but squelched most other inquiries about the details. He declined to say how much he weighs now and how much weight he has lost. It's none of anyone's business, he said. He conceded he used an alias at the hospital, but declined to say what it was. "I turned 50 years old, and it made me think - [you get] confronted with your own mortality as you start to age," Christie said.

LAHORE, Pakistan - One of Pakistan's most prominent politicians, former cricket star Imran Khan, fell at a political rally Tuesday, leaving him with two hairline skull fractures and knocking him off the campaign trail ahead of Saturday's general election. Khan has emerged as a wild-card candidate, and it is unclear how much his widespread personal popularity will translate into votes at the polls. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, however, is considered one of the top three parties in the country.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Former Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford revived a scandal-scarred political career by winning back his old congressional seat Tuesday in a district that had not elected a Democrat in three decades. The comeback was complete when he defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert. With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Sanford had 54 percent of the vote. Sanford, who turns 53 later this month, has never lost a race in three runs for Congress and two for governor.