[Actually, just Go read Xan. I just had to get that headline out of my system.]

More like this, please:

A federal judge rejected the tearful pleas of the former second-ranking official in the Interior Department yesterday and sentenced him to 10 months in prison for a felony conviction of obstructing a Senate investigation into corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"You are not above the law," U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle told former deputy interior secretary J. Steven ["Three Way"] Griles as he asked for forgiveness.

I'm sure Mr. Griles will be having fantasies of quite a different order shortly.

But don't cry for Steven Griles, Versailles!

Awhile back on "Law & Order" they had a scenario where a couple of guys had been conniving wickedly, but the only witness who could testify against either was the other one of the pair. They had the one guy all set to sing and then they put him on the stand and he said he and the other fellow had run up to Massachusetts the day before and gotten married, therefore he was refusing to testify under spousal privilege.

That of course was fiction. The following is what passes for reality these days. At least these two crooks aren't infested with Teh Ghey. From Taegan Goddard yesterday:

Two Bush administration officials "who have been linked in scandal are now linked in wedlock. The union of former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and Sue Ellen Wooldridge could have implications for the investigation into Griles's ties to ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff," The Hill reports.

Ain't it just [sniff, sniff, weep, blow nose, accidentally open large box filled with metal BBs onto the red wedding carpet] so sweet? Republican devotion to marriage & traditional family 'n' shit...it just gets me right [pats hand over lower digestive tract] here. But to continue:

Must have missed this one. NPR not teh suck on this one. Steve Curwood from Living on Earth"

The latest allegations involve two top environmental regulators. Former Deputy Interior Secretary, J. Steven Griles has been under investigation in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying affair. Now it turns out that Mr. Griles and his girlfriend, Sue Ellen Wooldrige, purchased a million dollar beach house with Donald Duncan. He's a vice president of Conoco Phillips, the nation's third largest oil company.

This is just a little crass, even for the anti-Democrats, eh?