I apologize for all the p0rnarific material we've had today, culminating in this headline, but you read this dreck and tell me what it sounds like to you, if not ink-drenched knob-gobbling:

A Fresh Face Vows to Revive the G.O.P.

By MICHAEL LUO
Published: March 26, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 23 — Amid the sea of square jaws and swept-back gray hair in Congress, Representative Adam H. Putnam, a tousled redhead whose cherubic appearance still causes Capitol police to stop him occasionally, appears a bit out of place.

But Mr. Putnam, 32, a Florida Republican, has become the unlikely mouthpiece for the beleaguered minority in the House, taking over as chairman of the Republican Conference, the third-ranking post behind the minority leader and whip, as his party struggles to right itself.

Mr. Putnam, something of a political wunderkind who at 26 was one of the youngest members of Congress in decades when he was elected in 2000, has taken on the role of attack dog over the last three months.

"Mouthpiece" he said. Oy. Couldn't you just buy a discreet ad in the personals, Mr. Luo? Surely they have an employee discount after all.

It just gets more nauseating after that. The major "accomplishment" this Putnam guy is noted for? Making a Big Public Stink about Nancy Pelosi getting a bigger plane to commute home on than Dennis Hastert had. Which, way way down in the story, on the jump page in fact, it is finally pointed out was not Speaker Pelosi's decision and No Big Fucking Deal of any sort. But Mr. Luo, barely pausing to wipe drool and God knows what other fluids off his chin, points out (semi-admiringly in fact) that Putnam has "never apologized" for this stupendous feat of masterful legislative accomplishment.

I mean, this is just eye-rollingly bad. It's in the Department of Dancing Bears, because the amazing thing is not that the bear dances well but that it dances at all. That's what they think is a "fresh face" Republican? Yeah, well, okay.