THE WOLFPACK

I'm not sure what I can add to this anecdote, from a New York Times article about the concentration of right-wingers in Palm Beach, Florida:

...But it was Mr. Limbaugh's arrival in 1996 that appears to be anno Domini in this conservative punditocracy. Gay Gaines, a longtime confidante and fund-raiser for Newt Gingrich, remembers the occasion well. Mr. Limbaugh ... fell in love with Palm Beach, she said, after visiting her over Memorial Day weekend in 1995.

"I might have a picture," she said, disappearing into a sitting room just off her palatial living room, which faces the Atlantic and has floor-to-ceiling picture windows. Sure enough, she emerged a few seconds later with a photo of Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Gingrich and William J. Bennett, the former adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush. The photo shows Mr. Limbaugh playing air guitar, Mr. Bennett playing an actual guitar and Mr. Gingrich holding a beer.

"That was taken at 2 a.m.," Ms. Gaines said, smiling. "It doesn't get any better than that."

Bennett was 51 years old at the time. Gingrich was the same age. Limbaugh was 44.

These, of course, are the people who, when they hold power, tell us that "the grown-ups are in charge."