We are now, apropos of Piggy in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," once again witness to that venerable Washington tradition of "piling on," wherein various and sundry politicians gather around to publicly flog some current or former public official in order to divert attention from their own shortcomings and misdeeds.

Veteran GOP operative Ed Gillespie detected "a whiff of sexism and a whiff of elitism" when he met with Republican conservatives opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. Gillespie is right. To many of those he scolded, the little gal from SMU just didn't measure up to the big guy from Harvard, John Roberts, who had just been confirmed as chief justice.