The Clinton campaign ad taking off on the “Sopranos” is a real winner. I would have said a real “hit” but that would have been trite. However, “swimming with the fishes” only applies as one pundit had it the Clintons are like fishes swimming in waters where politics is the life source flowing over their gills, the quintessential political animals, fish in this case. And the fact that politics is a dirty business and “politician” is a dirty word has no relevance to bottom feeders that thrive in muddy waters.

No one is going to be taken in by the ad knowing the Clintons will do and say anything including murder, as I and not a few others strongly suspect, for political power; however I take exception to those that think the ad is an attempt to “humanize” the Clintons, specifically Ms. Clinton. As per the Mafia the ad is about “Respect!”

Harking back to the Godfather Trilogy, the thing about “respect” was given such prominence it became a focus throughout. Even Gerry Trudeau was having a good time with this where he has Frank Sinatra being introduced to some mobsters in Las Vegas and told to show them “respect” because they were all “made” men, and Trudeau had Sinatra being childishly “Golly, gee, really?” impressed by this.

So, no matter the amount of spin the Clinton campaign ad is all about “respect” as per the Mafia and the Sopranos. But before anyone objects, I’ll repeat something I wrote some time ago. Michael chides Kay for her naiveté in believing the government operates any differently than the Mafia. My point at the time was that we could wish our government operated as efficiently as the Mafia. Both are involved in all the things made illegal to the Great Unwashed, things like drugs and prostitution, payoffs and kickbacks, blackmail, extortion, loan sharking, there is virtually nothing in organized crime, including murder in my opinion, you will not find among politicians those like the Clintons and Bush epitomize.

Many are the church-goers that will self-righteously say if the minister’s sermon did not “pinch their toes a little” he wasn’t doing his job. And just so with many that make a living seeming to try holding politicians accountable. But too many in this camp are also trying to maintain the status quo of keeping things like marijuana and prostitution illegal, all the while knowing those with wealth and power deny themselves nothing while jailing and imprisoning those without the wealth and power for doing the very same things.

What is the focus of those in power refusing to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor if not profit? The fact made so odiously obvious is that those in power are profiting from drugs and human smuggling, from the slave labor of illegal aliens otherwise our borders would be secured. That politicians and their companion criminals sometimes find themselves in competition is not surprising; so the occasional bloodletting as in the Mafia wars take place.

Law in America has become increasingly a matter of “interpretation.” Power and influence too often define “criminal” or “legitimate,” thereby making these a matter of interpretation as in “How much justice can you afford?” Elected office treated as a license to steal is no different than the way organized crime operates, but when it comes to trying to hold those like the Clintons, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush to account for their crimes they are the greased pigs escaping the laws we the Great Unwashed are forced to obey. Ten years in Iraq or ten years in litigation, both are crimes against We the People, crimes against humanity!

The great majority of people are good people who do not ask more of life than the chance to live honestly and peaceably. Then someone comes along to make their lives miserable for the sake of power and wealth. The result is a tyrant whether an individual or a tyrannical system like our government has become where virtually everyone becomes a “lawbreaker” in one sense or another, but those with the wealth and power escape the consequences of being lawbreakers. And while it is despicable for any to selfishly drive drunk unconscionably putting the lives of the innocent at risk, the obscenity of a pretense of law punishing a Paris Hilton while letting real criminals like politicians get a pass or spend years in litigation to avoid prison is obvious to all.

More than just fascination, what is the seemingly magnetic appeal of films like the Godfather Trilogy and shows like the Sopranos? We applaud the good guy with the fast gun that comes in, gets rid of the bullies and cleans up the town. We want to see some justice prevail somewhere, some honesty and adherence to civilized speech and behavior, we want to see fair play rather than privilege the criteria. But like the Clinton campaign ad, politicians like Bush and others, where is the “respect?” The fact they demand honor and respect without earning it, demanding honor and respect without personal risk to themselves proves them to be cowardly and not worthy of that one accords those being “made” as comparatively honest gangsters.