After a brief hiatus, the Avenging Angel, punisher of right-wing miscreants, resumed delivery of conservative smitings.

The retribution begins in Washington with Nancy Nord, the head of the Bush Consumer Products Safety Commission. First Nord demanded that Congress not increase the staffing and budget for her woefully under-funded agency in the face of massive Chinese product recalls. Just days later, the Washington Post revealed that she and her predecessor Hal Stratton received up to 30 paid trips from companies they were supposedly regulating. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for her resignation, the Angel muses, perhaps Nord should be demoted to food taste tester - in Beijing.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader and bald-faced liar Mitch McConnell was the recipient of overdue payback. Just days denying his staffer Don Stewart was behind the right-wing smear campaign against 12-year old S-CHIP recipient Graeme Frost, McConnell saw the role of his office in the GOP's slander detailed by the Kentucky media. It was McConnell who insisted on sworn testimony from Clinton aides in 1996, though not Bush staffers in 2007. Maybe now, the Angel notes, he, might be willing take an oath to tell the truth himself.

Meanwhile, GOP presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani got a double-dose of bad news in recent weeks. First came word that his close friend and former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik will likely face federal charges including bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice. Just days later we learned Mayor Giuliani gave Motorola a no-bid contract for radios that completely failed the NY Fire Department on 9/11. Perhaps Rudy's wife will call, the Angel shrugs, with some explanations.
For more on the Avenging Angel and the history of vengeance meted out to the wrong-doers of the right, visit here.