I have long been of the opinion that political letters are sort of like putting the toilet seat up when you’re taking a piss.  It doesn’t really make that much of a difference if you do it or not, but if no-one ever did it the whole place would become a cesspit in no time.

Wow.  That metaphor got out of hand quickly.  Let me try a different one:

Political letters are like the candles people light in the side-chapels of Catholic churches.  It pays for a small part of the upkeep of the edifice, puts out a little bit of illumination, and provides a fair bit of comfort for the faithful.  But only the sexton ever reads the prayer-cards, and the messages laid there never end up in the sermons except on the rarest of occasions.

Better, and mostly accurate, but pretty smarmy.  And probably kinda of patronizing as regards the personal power of prayer.

Me, I like to think of my political letters as kind of like the personals ads at the back of my alumni magazine: read, if at all, by a select few and only for their amusement value.  Certainly written on the assumption that the only people reading it are jaded beyond measure at the presumptively naive pose of the entire genre.

Recently I’ve taken to pushing the boundaries of what’s normally included in political letters by judiciously quoting scripture.   Or injudiciously, if you ask Da Partner.  This practice was not unusual in Texas, though giving a liberal spin to (say) the incident of the Samaritan woman at the well, or (say) a queer reading of the dialogue with the rich young ruler…those were probably not things the good US Senators from the Lone Star State were used to hearing.  Which lent a frisson of epater les Farisees, or somesuch, to the exercise.

But doing something like that here in California?  That’s…if anything a little edgier, a little crazier.  It’s not so much “ironic” as it is “out of context” and therefore probably shades into “kinda weird.”

Still and all, the reference to the prophet Daniel seemed entirely apposite to the particular situation in question.