American politics has seen its share of colorful characters. Moonshiners, rum runners, hippies, burn outs, drop outs, and Hollywood actors (do I repeat myself?) have dotted the landscape. Perhaps my favorite was Congressman James Traficant (D-Ohio), whom nobody ever had the heart to tell that a small animal had died on his head and barely covered his bald spot. He would end each of his speeches on the floor of Congress with "Beam me up, Mr. Speaker." Sadly, his career was cut short by corruption charges and he lost his seat when was sent to jail. He did run as an Independent while incarcerated and managed to win 15% of the vote.
Another former member of Congress worthy of mention is Cynthia McKinney. Anybody who follows politics knows she has a big mouth, but we weren't quite prepared for her accusations that the Louisiana National Guard killed 5,000 prisoners and buried their bodies in a mass grave during the week of Hurricane Katrina. The fact that there were not 5,000 families of missing prisoners alerting the media that they had lost contact with their loved ones did not seem to sway Rep. McKinney. She is also remembered for assaulting a House Police officer when he refused to let her around the metal detectors at the House entrance and for claiming that the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and allowed them to happen. Too nutty even for the Democratic Party, she has been a Green Party member since 2007.
But however outlandish our domestic politicians may be, they pale in comparison to the wife of the newly-elected leader of Japan. Miyuki Hatoyama claims to have ridden in a UFO to Venus, which she described as a beautiful, green planet. Not content to merely sound a little eccentric, she claimed that she and Tom Cruise knew each other in a previous life, in which Mr. Cruise was Japanese. Mr. Cruise remembers the encounter differently, as his previous life was spent on the planet Teegeeack in the service of Emperor Xenu. The Bat-Crap-Crazy theme she was working on was completed with her description of how she eats the sun for its "yummy, yummy" energy. This all begs the question of whether Japan's socialized health care system covers anti-psychotic drugs.
The great thing about our First Lady is that she hasn't been an embarrassment to her husband or to the country. We can pick our own leaders and we get a fair vetting of their personalities during the campaigns. Spouses are a different matter. Oftentimes, unless the significant other is a loud mouth during the campaign like Teresa Heinz-Kerry, we really don't have a clue what we sort of First Lady we are getting. I am pleased that the biggest Michelle Obama "controversy" we have had to deal with has been whether or not she should have worn shorts or long pants to the Grand Canyon. Now, if she had tried to explain her fashion faux pas by saying "Well, on my home world, we wear shorts all the time" I would really start to worry.
