Another high-tech lynching

Haven't heard that one in awhile.

That was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's expression, in protecting himself against allegations of Long Dong shenanigans during his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings back in 1991.

Lately the affirmatively defensive epithet has been resurrected by Charlene Hardin, a beleaguered Milwaukee public school director.

As chronicled by crack columnist Daniel Bice in the Journal-Sentinel, Hardin attended a conference last summer in Philadelphia, but apparently only turned up toward the end to demand all the free stuff. Meanwhile she was tooling around town in a $200-per-day rental car and generally livin' large at the Embassy Suites Hilton.*

The district attorney was asked to look into potential illegality, but reportedly discovered only intimations of questionable competence.

At least one local worthy of note is contemplating a run at Charlene Hardin's District 4 seat, the term of which expires next April. But I don't know whether I'm at liberty to reveal it yet. All in due time.

* "Just minutes from the Philadephia Zoo," it says here. In fact one of Charlene Hardin's mightiest complaints was that all the gratis zoo passes were gone by the time she appeared at the conference.