I think Eric Alterman's post today about William Kristol, Dick Gephardt and McCarthy in Altercation is among the best I've seen. Is it plagiarism if you copy your own father? Never mind. The connection that Alterman makes is enough.

I also have a personal connection to McCarthy. It's the reason I'm here at all in a real sense. It was 1954 and my mom was attending Trinity College in DC and my dad was at Georgetown Law School. In a group date that brought about five or so couples together at the Bayou on K Street (my mom was pissed; she thought they were going to Andrews Air Force base or something much more refined for her Worcester, Mass. taste).

The conversation inevitabely turned to McCarthy and my mom and dad were the only two at the table to be -- get this -- outraged at what was happening. My dad recalls that my mom had the right ideas but no scholarship to back her up - but the right ideas were enough. And he swears he told his roommate later that night that he'd met the woman he was going to marry. True story.