Well, that didn't take long.

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer features a front page story -- headlined "Official vouched for sex offender" -- which I think is a perfect example of more to come:

Republican State Rep. Eugene McGill urged a judge in 2003 to show leniency for a friend who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and was later labeled a violent predator by the court.

The sixth-term Montgomery County incumbent defended a letter he wrote on behalf of Sheldon Granor - a man he called a "pillar of the community" - who developed a relationship with the teen over the Internet.

[...]

"I don't condone what people do," McGill said in an interview last week. "I write letters on the behalf of people I have personal knowledge of. I have done it before. I will do it again."

The victim, now 22, said she was offended by McGill's action and believed it suggested he had sought to protect a pedophile over his victim.

"I'm outraged, floored, livid," she said in an interview yesterday arranged at The Inquirer's request by the case's prosecutor. The Inquirer's policy is not to publish names of alleged sexual assault victims without their consent.

The disclosure of the letter comes while House Republican leaders in Washington are being questioned for how they dealt with the issue of protecting teens from predators. McGill's Democratic opponent said the letter was an example of how McGill is unfit for public office.

Republicans support perversion!

Didn't you know?

Also in today's Inquirer is an article about Bill Clinton's Philadelphia visit. It was disappointing to read that his main event was "closed to the press":

Clinton, who turned 60 in August, raised an undisclosed sum for Casey in an event closed to the press. He also campaigned for Democrat Joe Sestak, who is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, who is debating a run for Philadelphia mayor.

"The one thing I made a very determined decision about, even before I got sick" - with heart disease in 2004 - "was that I would not leave the White House and spend the rest of my life wishing I were still president," Clinton said in a recent New Yorker profile.

"Closed to the press."

Sheesh.

(Any idea whether they're including bloggers in that definition?)

I hate local news!

*Much as I'd love to copyright the idea, so I could make some money out of it, I'm afraid ideas enjoy no such protection.

MORE: In addition to the cowering over the Foley scandal, many Republicans seem ashamed of their own president.

Doesn't sound like a winning strategy, but I could be wrong.