2010: It's a Race to the Bottom

(Newser) – The crazies have come pouring out of the woodwork, writes Gail Collins in a survey of the 2010 election landscape. Sure, not much is new about Carl Paladino and Andrew Cuomo frustrating New Yorkers' simple dream "of having a governor whose sex life is a complete mystery," but head down to South Carolina, where "the most impossible Republican in the Senate," Jim DeMint, is looking pretty good next to "apparently delusional Democrat" Alvin Greene. Tough choice, South Carolina.

Let's not forget about Christine O'Donnell, she of Satanic altar dates and numerous resume malfunctions. And wacky Jan Brewer fled her "horrible" and only debate performance with reporters screaming for her to address "the question about the headless bodies!” But, writes the New York Times columnist, for true awfulness, go West: A "non-event" between Harry Reid and Sharron Angle, in which they refused to appear onstage simultaneously, ended when "two female Reid supporters and a male Angle fan got into a fistfight."