Status Updates From St. George and the Godfathe...

"Innocent people are this minute being blasted and burned to bits...and they are innocent of any wrong-doing." Good Republican faces looked back at Riegle in the uneasy bewilderment of bankers who listen to an attractive client apply in well-ordered and reasonable style for a most sensible loan, but they know they will not grant it because there is a note in the file- "Do not lend this man money!"

Of course, there is always the parochial masochism of politics which is ready to welcome betrayal for the pleasure of the bitterness it provides.

Yet there was also that damnable gentle singsong prairie voice, that tight voice of a thousand restraints which sings only of its resentment at its own restraint...one had heard such voices on Midwestern bankers, ministers, and on the baby-faced killer who had always been the nice boy next door...the mild, self-negating ripple of a life devoted to causes external to oneself and to the show of acts of Christian love.