Dog Days Of August

There used to be a rule, if you were going to do something wrong, don't do it in August. The government shuts down, not much happens in August. So it doesn't take much to make a headline during that month. Stories that wind up deep in the newspapers back there with the girdle ads in February find a way to the front page in August. Nothing else to put there or at least that's the way it used to be, but there was so much news last week that Hurricane Charley pushed Iraq right off the cable channel, not because it was worse than Iraq but because the hurricane was closer to home and you can only tell one story at a time which is the way of all news.

And then for one day, even the perfect storm was replaced by -- What else? -- a perfect mess, the kind of scandal we've come to expect in August. The governor of New Jersey said he is quitting after revealing he had added a boyfriend to his traditional marriage. The wife stood by but did not say she was staying on. A man who was on the state payroll for a while is also threatening to sue the governor for sexual harassment. It's a new twist to a perennial political story to be sure but one with the same old ending: In politics, hypocrisy is still a felony. There was so much news last week that even the presidential candidates were pushed off TV, but isn't August when they're supposed to be resting anyway?

I don't know about you, but I surrender. I've had enough news. We need to get back to the old ways.

By Bob Schieffer