Quote of the Day

"Nancy Karibjanian: What opinions, of late, that have come from our high court, do you most object to?

Christine O'Donnell: Oh, gosh. Um, give me a specific one. I'm sorry.

Karibjanian: Actually, I can't, because I need you to tell me which ones you object to.

O'Donnell: Um, I'm very sorry, right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot, but I'll put it up on my website, I promise you.

Wolf Biltzer: We know that you disagree with Roe v. Wade.

O'Donnell: Yeah, but she said a recent one.

Blitzer: That's relatively recent.

O'Donnell: She said 'of late.' But yeah. Well, Roe v. Wade would not put the power -- It's not recent, it's 30-something years old --

Blitzer: But since then, have there been any other Supreme Court decisions?

O'Donnell: Well, let me say about Roe v. Wade -- If that were overturned, would not make abortion illegal in the United States, it would put the power back to the states.

Blitzer: But besides that decision, anything else you disagree with?

O'Donnell: Oh, there are several when it comes to pornography, when it comes to court decisions -- not to Supreme Court, but federal court decisions to give terrorists Mirandize rights. There are a lot of things I believe -- This California decision to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I believe there are a lot of federal judges legislating from the bench.

Blitzer: That wasn't the Supreme Court. That was a lower --

O'Donnell: That was a federal judge. That's what I said. In California."

-- From last night's televised debate on CNN between Delaware Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell and Chris Coons

You know that scene in The Lost World where the tyrannosaurus comes bursting out of the cargo hold of the ship after tearing apart the crew, then proceeds to stomp off toward downtown San Diego while people scream and panic all around it -- and Ian Malcolm leans in to Peter Ludlow and says, "Now you're John Hammond"?

Well, that nationally televised moment last night when Christine O'Donnell completely melted down and you could practically see the gears inside her pea brain crunch to a halt, all I wanted to say was, "Now you're Sarah Palin."

That being said, I was thinking yesterday that even though it really does look like -- as with her mentor -- she doesn't stand a chance of making it to Washington through the usual channels, it probably doesn't matter anymore. Christine O'Donnell -- once again, like her mentor before her -- is now a celebrity, which means that if she wants it that way, we'll likely be saddled with her in one form or another for months if not years to come.

I will give O'Donnell one thing, though: I get the impression that she's a genuinely nice person and not half the mindless machine of naked ambition and opportunism that her personal Svengali is, so maybe if we're lucky she won't really know how to milk her new reality TV star status and will fade away into the annals of pop culture ephemera -- a mere object lesson to future generations, reminding them of a time when the political landscape was suddenly ruled by people with a whole lot of ideologic rhetoric and unfocused outrage, but not a lot of smarts.