Ed Apparently Has Other Things on His Mind

I had sworn off the Book Babes beat, having been assured that it would be taken care of, but somebody's just got to say something about this week's column, in which Our Gals deliver up absolutely stunning double whammy breaking news. Did you know that Bill and Hillary Clinton stand to make a lot of money on their books? SHOCKING! And that everybody who works in Washington and has a book to peddle turns to Bob Barnett? IMAGINE!

My favorite bit, apart from the hilariously inelegant "He plays both sides of the fence, in other words," is this lame attempt to rap Barnett's knuckles:

If I'm uneasy about the chumminess of it all, he doesn't mind. "You can be bothered all you want," he said, but that doesn't translate into any legal or ethical issues for celebrities who cash in big-time on their superior networking.