WOULD IT SURPRISE YOU TO KNOW THAT BILL FRIST HAS RAISED A VICIOUSLY RACIST, ANTI-SEMITIC PACK OF DRUNKEN BRATS? IT SHOULDN'T

Today's Sunday Times, the London one, has a noteworthy article by Tony Allen-Mills reporting about the exposed foibles of politicians' children. The billionaire robber-baron Frist family, deservedly, gets the brunt of it. Allen-Mills accepts Frists' fake demeanor as a man of "sober rectitude," instead of explaining that he's a grubby pol who has aggressively used his political position to enrich himself and his family by destroying the American health care system. But the "sober rectitude" persona helps paint a contrast with the pack of wild, savage, drunken spoiled racist brats he and his wife have raised.

"The same cannot be said of his son Jonathan, a Vanderbilt University student who recently appeared on the Internet wearing six cans of beer strapped to his belt. Nor has Jonathan's brother Bryan done much to help his father's attempts to strike a reasonable note about U.S. involvement in Iraq. 'I was born an American by God's amazing grace,' wrote Bryan Frist in an online profile. 'Let's bomb some people.'" Yes, the acorn hasn't fallen far at all, even though these turds haven't been polished up yet.

"Frist is one of at least half a dozen US politicians-- and at least one US Supreme Court judge-- whose public images have been dented in recent months by the Internet antics of their offspring. Pictures of scantily clad daughters whooping it up have become a staple of Internet gossip." Allen-Mills doesn't mention the more serious daughter scandals involving crooked Republican solons using their daughters as part of their crime operations, the way Curt Weldon (R-PA) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) have (not to mention GOP crime wave syndicate chieftain Tom DeLay).

But, as mildly funny as the story about GOP discomfiture might be, it isn't really a serious look into the blatant hypocrisy and criminality of what today's Republican Party has devolved into. "The popularity of teenage networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook is proving a goldmine for political bloggers keen to compare the pious proclamations of candidates running for office with the blogs and picture-sharing websites maintained by their children. No sooner had Congressman Louie Gohmert, a conservative Republican from Texas, unleashed a tirade against the moral inadequacies of Democrats opposed to the war in Iraq, than someone found Internet pictures of his daughter Caroline dancing on a bartop and posing with a man in his underpants." Cute.

At least the Frist crew's embarrassment is something a little weightier and more thought-provoking. I mean there is every reason to believe that these boys are destined to turn into future George Allens, if not the monstrosity their own father is. Jonathan Frist has been in and out of the papers for drunk driving, underage driving, racism and anti-Semitism.

Roll Call, the Washington insiders' newspaper published on Capitol Hill, recently reported that Jonathan Frist's Facebook entry declared him a member of the "Jonathan Frist appreciation for 'Waking Up White People' Group." It also mentioned a group where there were "No Jews allowed. Just kidding. No seriously."

Hometown newspapers, appropriately, took it more seriously than they take the stories about political offspring using drugs and booze and screwing their brains out-- the way the Bush family spawn do all the time. "Errant children have long been a fact of Washington political life, but have rarely caused any lasting scandal. Bush was untroubled by the underage drinking exploits of his twin daughters Jenna and Barbara. The president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, was not seriously damaged when his daughter Noelle was arrested on drug charges. His son John was arrested for having sex in a car in a shopping centre car park. The U.S. media has in the past treated adolescent follies as largely a private matter, but the mushrooming trend towards public self-exposure on the Internet is beginning to make life a misery for celebrities with children who blog."