Snakes, rats, and Springfieldians

Politics and pop culture continue to intersect in strange and often hilarious ways. For instance, we should have known that the outcry over President Bush's commutation of what he called Scooter Libby's "excessive"  sentence for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements would not be over until we'd heard from Richard Hatch. The original Survivor winner, currently serving a 51-month sentence for tax evasion, e-mailed the Boston Globe to say, "What a country! Excessive sentence! Where's my pardon/commutation?" As it turns out, Rich, President Bush did consider the merits of your case, but after reading a long legal brief including much mention of "snakes" and "rats," he decided to let your sentence stand. Sorry, dude, the executive branch tribe has spoken.

Also in the Globe: the news that Sen. Ted Kennedy doesn't hold a grudge against The Simpsons for satirizing him for the past 18 years as Springfield's sleazy Mayor Joe Quimby (pictured). He's even lent his vocal support to Springfield, Mass.'s bid to become the official Springfield that will host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie later this month. You can watch the Senator deliver his Quimby-esque pronunciation of the word "chow-dah" in the city's five-minute promotional video (as well as the video entries of 13 other Springfields) in the official contest page at USA Today's website. Vote early and often, as they used to say.