There are two subjects I want to cover today. Last night I attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in DC. My long-time friend, Margaret Talev, is this year’s president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, so she had me invited and it was an interesting event. While it had all of the trappings of a Washington gala (people making sure they only talked to people who were important), I appreciated the invite and was happy to see Margaret have her well-deserved moment.

What I didn’t like at all was the performance of comedian, Michelle Wolf. She was crude and rude. As anyone who reads what I write would know, I have major issues with the Trump Administration. Frankly, there is a treasure trove of comedic material to work with without resorting to insulting Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the manner Wolf did or making crude abortion jokes. She wasn’t funny and she undermined an evening dedicated to the elegance of the First Amendment as well as Margaret’s speech about common values and the need for a vigilant and free press. While some of the people complaining have indulged in their own crude comments about President Obama and others, it really struck a very foul note for me. If you believe in fact-based and civil dialogue, this wasn’t close. And it wasn’t even funny.

On a separate note, the other item I want to point out is that Missouri will be a petri dish in November to study what happens to Republicans when they defy the fact deniers in their party. Josh Hawley, the Attorney General of Missouri, is running against the incumbent, Claire McCaskill. The Republican Governor of Missouri has been indicted and a legislative committee led by Republicans just published a salacious account of his affair including alleged physical abuse. Hawley called on him to resign. Greitens, the Governor, has called it a “political witch hunt.” Sound familiar? He was elected as an outsider who would clean up the system. So now Hawley has to hope Greitens is gone soon, by maybe resigning, to avoid jail. If he is still around come November, how many of the deniers in his party will punish him by not voting for him? It really is the basic conundrum facing many Republicans. They can follow the example set by Paul Ryan and grovel and then not run. Or do they actually explain to their voters why they can’t stand with the President or the Governor. It would be profiles in courage, which are in short supply on both sides of the aisle.