Well, OK, Lindsey Graham. Not on my bingo card, and not necessarily the obituary I most wanted to see this weekend, but I’ll take it. His legacy has already been well-pawed-over, and I don’t really have anything to add. I’m reminded of a line from a Martin Cruz Smith novel, describing two informers whose handler had died suddenly, something like, “Confused, they looked for a new hand on the leash.” Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic has written two excellent pieces with Graham at their center, this one, from 2020, about the nature of collaboration and his final obit, written Sunday, here.

Both should be gift links; I hope they work.

I won’t spend any time snarking about his obvious homosexuality and his refusal to acknowledge it; that’s between him and his…whoever. His God. His constituents. None of my business, except if perhaps some terrible kompromat was behind his cleaving to Trump. But honestly, I don’t think so. In pursuit of “relevance,” however he defined it, he wanted a hand on his leash. And he got it, and it destroyed him.

And speaking of the dead and near-dead, I see Mitch McConnell is claiming his lengthy absence from work is no biggie, that he suffered a fall and was “briefly unconscious,” blah blah blah. Eyewitnesses say he EMTs were doing CPR on him, and you don’t do CPR on the unconscious, but someone who has no pulse. He — or the people trying to pass this off as the truth — needs to take that bullshit elsewhere.

Let’s talk something else: The columns on the White House portico, which are now tarped off, allegedly for “restoration.” More bullshit, if you ask me. I think this story, filed back in March, is closer to the truth:

For nearly two centuries, the White House’s main entrance — framed by a row of graceful Ionic columns — has been a signature image of the seat of American power.

Now the Trump-appointed head of a federal arts commission is proposing to replace them with a more ornate style favored by President Donald Trump. Those more decorative columns, a style known as Corinthian, are considered the most luxurious in classical architecture and appear on buildings such as the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. They have long been deployed on Trump’s properties, and the president has handpicked them for his planned White House ballroom, too.

If you don’t know the difference between ionic and Corinthian columns, look it up. The latter are fancier, more pimp-style, and I have no doubt they’ll be gilded, too. Where are the British when you need them? Burn this sucker to the ground.

What a weekend of news. My head is reeling, but maybe that’s just the heat dome, approaching to blow out the rest of the week. Stay cool, y’all.