• George Murphy -- song and dance man on stage and screen, became a United States Senator; (Tom Lehrer: "Oh yes it's great, at last we have a Senator who can really sing and dance.")



• Ronald Reagan -- B movie star and shill for General Electric, became Governor of California and President of the United States;



• Shirley Temple Black -- iconic child star, became U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and to the United Nations



• Sonny Bono -- pop singer, became mayor of Palm Springs and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives;



• Arnold Schwarzenegger -- weight lifter and monosyllabic action-adventure star, became one-term Governor of California;

So, a quiz: name five people of comparable fame and accomplishment in show biz who become liberal or progressive Democratic politicians. If it's not possible to do this, what affect does this have on the Republican/right-wing claim that Hollywood is a hot-bed of political liberalism (which is really only a milder variant of the McCarthyite claim that Hollywood is riddled with Commies). What weight should be given to the fact that "Hollywood" is owned lock, stock and barrel by major entertainment conglomerates, which are, in turn, controlled by conservative businessman?

Since when did faith become a concept that only the religious may claim? I, too, have faith: faith in family and friendship, faith in community and faith in a future (though probably not in my lifetime, not if Santorum's narrow definition of faith prevails) where love triumphs over intolerance and people are free to love their same-sex partners without fear of retribution from absolutist politicians.

Mark A. Thompson
New York

Media Matters for America has more.

You know what I think of when I look at the collective state of our elected and appointed government officials these days, dominated as they are by evangelicals, neo-con ideologues and right-wing dogmatists? I think of the scene from Aliens, where Sigourney Weaver, having been rescued from floating through deep space for decades in a state of high-tech hibernation, is grilled by the top brass of The Company as she doggedly tries to make them understand that there's a serious threat to humanity out there. "Excuse me, ma'am," she says to one particularly dense corporate bureaucrat, "did IQs fall sharply while I was away?"

In America's hot stove leagues, battles are constantly waged over whether the baseball stars of today are better or worse (or even in any way comparable) to the legendary superstars of the past, and I suppose we can have the same arguments about comparing politicians from different eras, but it certainly does appear to me that the current crop of politicos is particulary blinkered, ignorant, narrow-minded and, not to point too fine a point on it, pretty damn stupid to boot.