Father Komonchak beat me to the punch in citing the NY version of the Senate Replacement Sweepstakes, as detailed most recently in the NYTimes. I wouldn't say the political machinations rise to the level of actually profiteering from public office, as the Illinois governor (I refuse to attempt to spell his name) appears to have done. What I think is fascinating about the NY case is how often "outsiders" have made themselves a home here--and then been elected! Hey, they've often been pretty good, so why not import talent? Some beg to differ, most notably the denizens of the Old Town bar, a favorite watering hole (especially beloved of Fordham alums and Jesuits, it seems). As I stumbled, er, strode purposefully, out of the Old Town the other night I saw this pasquinade in the window, and had to take the picture. It sums it up pretty well. (And the bridge reference was to the Novemberrenaming of the Triborough Bridge--a perfectly good and descriptive name for a workaday span--after Robert F. Kennedy. So it goes.)NB: As Gene Palumbo noted below, click on the picture to enlarge it and make reading easier, indeed, possible. My computer skills are still primitive.