Campaign Without End

One of the things I get most annoyed with when it comes to politics, a field that is endlessly annoying, is the way whenever one side takes a position on something the other screams they're playing politics. Well, of course they are. That's their job, for heaven's sake. I once asked a leading member of Italy's parliament about a puzzling aspect of the Italian political scene. He answered it could be summed up by the story of the man who came home early one day and found his wife naked in bed. A man's clothes were strewn on the floor. He found the man huddled in the closet and in a rage demanded to know what was going on. "I know it sounds odd," the stranger said, "but I was passing by here and had to go to the bathroom. Your wife was kind enough to let me in and I was just taking my clothes off when you arrived." "Do you expect me to believe that?" the enraged husband shouted." "No," the stranger said, "but under the circumstances can you come up with a better answer?"