After living for 50 plus years I have begun to think that I have seen all the forms of human folly. Not so. So many new twists, too many to name them all, but here are a few that bring smiles or chagrins:

Mike Brown resigns from FEMA in disgrace. Two months later he announces he is a consultant for emergency response teams. So the guy who was more concerned with his dinner reservations than the Katrina crisis thinks his lack of knowledge is marketable now? Oh well, in the age of incompetence, maybe he has a point.

California Congressman Randy Cunningham is forced to resign after nine terms in the House of Representatives. It seems the congressman sat on the house appropriations committee and used his position to help a local company gain large federal defense contracts. The benefit to Congressman Cunningham? $2.5 million. Wow. Apparently the congressman thought no one would notice his Rolls Royce or yacht. Really.

An Ohio congressman, who remains as yet un-indicted, may have taken so many bribes from Jack Abramoff that money was spilling on the streets. Trips, meals, campaign contributions Š never say no congressman. I hear golf in Scotland is great.

Louis Frey, FBI Director during the Clinton presidency managed to ignore terrorism altogether for eight years and invested in a computer system that couldn't be operated by a gaggle of MIT grads, has written a book. In an interview this week with Chris Matthews, Frey gave himself an &#8220A” on his oversight of the FBI. Mirror, mirror on the wallŠ

Ken Lay, once a friend of the Bush family, is about to go on trial for stealing all of the assets of his company, Enron. Ken's defense, in the face of just about every other corporate officer, is that, as CEO, he didn't have a clue about the financial state of his company. Is this a version of the Twinkie Defense?

Congressman Tom DeLay is outraged with the charges against him in Texas. To paraphrase the congressman, the charges are &#8220political hackism at its worst.” Give the congressman credit, who should know better than &#8220The Hammer” about political hackism?

David Safavian, until recently White House staff member and top procurement officer for the entire federal government, was arrested for corruption. Gee, that must hurt. Talk about corruption at the top.

Scooter Libby is charged with lying to the grand jury about the CIA affair. He may still be joined by Karl Rove and as yet unnamed others as the investigation of Patrick Fitzgerald goes forward with a new grand jury. Scooter, are there no lessons learned from Watergate and the Clinton years? It isn't the things you doŠit's the lying about the things you do that always gets you jail time.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist remains under investigation for a silly little thing. Apparently someone thinks he should have known when he directed the sale of his blind trust in the family business that the stock was about to fall in price. Absurd! Just because his father founded the company and his brother sat on the Board of Directors is no reason for the majority leader to have insider information.

Who knew? Ex National Republican Chair, now Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, has a friend, and contributor, in the debris clean-up business. Guess who won a no-bid federal contact to clean up after Katrina. It is good to have friends, isn't it?

In an unrelated matter, Democrats have recently charged the Republicans with cronyism and corruption at the highest levels.

Hacks, political hacks, all those Democrats. Where do they get such absurd charges?

Dr. Jim Crawford is a local political enthusiast. He can be reached at drjim893@msn.com.