With the Foley scandal going flatter than Paris Hilton's bust, Democrats and their media accomplices must mine elsewhere for electoral gold.

Today's Washington Post piece, "Hastert's Team Mentality to Be Tested as Foley Scandal Unfolds", is an example of to what they've been reduced.

It could have been Speaker Dennis Hastert's team skills or dexterity or experience or ingenuity that is being tested, but no, it's his "mentality."

It takes until the second paragraph for the authors, Michael Grunwald and Jim VandeHei,  to make the relevant point that Mr. Hastert is "the beefy former wrestling coach - who's a bit bearlike himself." Just in case that's too subtle, we're later advised: "He looks like a cross between actor Wilford Brimley and Jabba the Hutt, and his unassuming Midwestern public demeanor makes for dull television."

Now that is some in-depth analysis if I've ever seen it. Mr. Hastert is large and isn't known for his oratorical abilities. Well, not everyone can be loaded with the charisma of John Kerry or Walter Mondale.

Toward the end of the article the name calling subsides when we learn that regardless of whether Mr. Hastert remains speaker, "he'll be the speaker who presided over an era of unprecedented partisanship, an era when winning seemed to be the only thing that mattered."

Unprecedented partisanship? Have Washington Post writers never heard of Tip O'Neill? Maybe not. I don't recall his size or looks being an issue for them.