I'm a firm believe in the saying that when the government occasionally does the right thing, it's almost always for the wrong reason.

Here's an example. I'm not sorry to see it happen, on general principles, because I thought that what happened in Iran-Contra was mind-bogglingly stupid (though fortunately the Democrats were unable to make political hay out of it, because they were upset, and thought that the public would be upset, by the wrong thing--the funding of the Constras, rather than the dealings with Iran...), and I was underwhelmed by the Total Information Awareness deal. But I find it amusing that Poindexter has resigned over the event futures market proposal, which was arguably a good idea, and certainly not as bad as its idiot instant critics in the Congress made it out to be.

Its going back a ways - 10 years perhaps - but on a charlie rose like program a republican actually admitted that the reason they chose Dan Quale to run with - is that it would draw attention away from the Iran Contra scandle....