There might have been bigger political disappointments, but surely Colin and Michael Powell hold the record for squandered political capital and gross, disappointing negligence by a father and son.

Colin Powell went into the Bush administration as one of the few Republicans I could conceivably have supported for the Presidency (along with John McCain) and emerged at the other end a wraith who sold his soul, going against his own well-stated convictions in an attempt to convince the American public we were going to war in Iraq for reasons of security. I wonder how he feels about that decision now?

Michael Powell was appointed to head the FCC, widely seen as an interim stop on the way to high elected office. First he sold out the American people (maybe it really is genetic) by bending over for fat media interests and not only peddling the available broadcasting airwaves for pennies, then nailed us again by allowing further media consolidation in an already unhealthily inbred space. Oh, and he found time to wage a one-man war for “decency” that involved levying more than 70 times the fines of his predecessor. This from the man who emphatically maintained that the government shouldn’t be our “nanny” and that “turning it off” was the answer. He couldn’t have left soon enough…