After Florida: Party politics is like "jumping into a cesspool"

From the outset of Orwell's memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, he warns the reader that some chapters will be devoted exclusively to the inter-party politics of the various militias fighting against Franco's army. This was done as a courtesy, he explains, so that readers of different sensibilities can avoid altogether what Orwell likened to "jumping into a cesspool."

I am generally of the same mind with regards to party politics.

But if you must take the plunge into that proverbial cesspool, I recommend the writings of Alexander Cockburn (Pron: Co-Burn, ahem). His columns are published at least once a week on his co-edited newsletter, CounterPunch.

His most recent, co-authored with Jeffrey St. Clair: After Florida: McCain vs. Clinton?

He's a versatile writer (writes about a lot more than just party politics), been writing for a long time, and you might be surprised that he had a weekly column on the Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal in the 1980s -- a space generally reserved to "mad-dog neo-con journalism" as he once put it.

One of his most hilarious pieces is a satire of PBS's one-time Lehrer/MacNeil News Hour (Now just Lehrer News Hour).
The Tedium Twins. Really to look at this one. Very funny.

Excerpt:

ROBERT MACNEIL (voice over): Should one man own another?

(Titles)

MACNEIL: Good evening. The problem is as old as man himself. Do property rights extend to the absolute ownership of one man by another? Tonight, the slavery problem. Jim?

LEHRER: Robin, advocates of the continuing system of slavery argue that the practice has brought unparalleled benefits to the economy. They fear that new regulations being urged by reformers would undercut America's economic effectiveness abroad. Reformers, on the other hand, call for legally binding standards and even for a phased reduction in the slave force to something like 75 percent of its present size. Charlayne Hunter- Gault is in Charleston. Charlayne?

HUNTER-GAULT: Robin and Jim, I have here in Charleston, Mr. Ginn, head of the Cottongrowers Association. Robin?

MACNEIL: Mr. Ginn, what are the arguments for unregulated slavery?

GINN: Robin, our economic data show that attempts at regulation of working hours, slave quarters, and so forth would reduce productivity and indeed would be widely resented by the slaves themselves.