Mitch McConnell, money-man

ONLY politicians with inspiration, with soaring somersaulting flair, can aspire to stand out from the ordinary cynicism of their trade and achieve true brazenness. Happily, America's president and vice-president belong to this talented minority. On September 9th Bill Clinton ignored the campaign-finance scandals swirling around his feet, and posed as cheerleader-in-chief for a clean-campaign reform bill. Four days earlier, Al Gore was confronted with fresh allegations that he had broken campaign-finance laws, and his response was just as cheerful. Far from apologising, Mr Gore assumed an attitude of righteous zeal, as though the abuses of which he stood accused had magically vindicated him. “There's no question but that we need campaign-finance reform”, he declared. “I have been an author and advocate of campaign reform for more than 20 years.”