You should be. The guy is wacked out of his mind. Here's the story if you're interested. It includes the following quote from Mr. Traficant. "I would ask the committee not to ask me any questions, because I've got to go to the bathroom. I'm disgusted, busted, can't be trusted."

And check out his mullet! Go ahead, check it out!

On Monday the House votes on whether they will accept the ethics committee recomendation that James Traficant, a convicted felon, be expelled from the House. This past week, CSPAN has been broadcasting coverage of the committee hearings into the matter. The committee's biggest mistake was not voting to limit the time permitted for closing statements, as Mr. Traficant has been talking about himself ceaselessly for days.

I hope some of you have been able to catch it, it's been the best show on TV. From what I can gather, and I'll admit to not really having any idea about anything on account of Mr. Traficant's resistance to any sort of narrative flow, Mr. Traficant has been set up.

He refers to himself only in the third person. "Traficant did this" and "Traficant did that" and "Traficant would never make his staffers clean barnacles off his boat without paying them!"

He goes on and on about some wide ranging conspiracy to get him that involves the FBI, the Justice Department, the IRS, the CIA, Chinese Communists, the mob, and Janet Reno. They're all working together on some crusade to "bring down Traficant!"

So, naturally, this consipracy reached its height when he was convicted on ten counts in Federal Court. He was convicted of things like making his staffers bale hay without paying them and forcing them to kick back $2,500 of their salaries a month to keep their positions.

The judge was in on it, and wouldn't let him put on a defense. He had fifty witnesses he wanted to present and all of them were kicked because none of them saw anything. They were all hearsay witnesses. What is it they say about fools representing themselves?

They've taken his freedom, he claims, as he will likely be sentenced to eight years when he appears for sentencing.

He dared the committee to expell him, while vowing to be the first representative re-elected to Congress from prison.

And he even managed to work his trademark "Beam me up, Mr. Speaker!" into his rant.

On Monday, when the resolution is up for a vote, he gets ten minutes to present his side of the situation to the House. He said he was going to wear his denim "outfit" and do a moonwalk!

Are you watching this? Are you following what's going on? Are you listening?

Posted at 1:19 a.m.

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