Silly Season Officially Opened in USA

Michele Bachman, described by Andy Borowitz as the candidate preferred by Republicans who find Sarah Palin "too cerebral," has won the Iowa Straw Poll, a fundraising nonevent that should be taken about as seriously, writes The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, as a corn on the cob eating contest.

(You can tell it's a slow day here when the best lines are swiped from other writers.)

Meanwhile, it is reported that Paul Ryan, the House of Representatives' Republican budget prestidigitator, is a disciple of Ayn Rand, author of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that one of the Tea Party heroes can read. The bad news is what he is reading.

A belief that there is something profound or literary in these novels is an adolescent condition like acne, which in most people is a temporary affliction. Ryan, however, has ordered his staff to read Rand's books. Surely there is something in the US labor code that forbids this.

And don't tell Stephen Harper, or soon all the Conservative MPs will have to read "The Wit and Wisdom of Preston Manning."