Christine O'Donnell is not likely to be the next senator from Delaware (keep praying), making Saturday's profile in the NYTimes fun to read. From a large Catholic family with a lot of diversity (three Republican and three Democrat siblings, one lesbian, and a father who was Bozo the clown), she resembles many Catholic girls we all know and have known--endowed with a sense of humor and the gift of gab. Her garrulous style may exceed that of one former senator from Delaware, Joseph Biden. But where she got her politics?Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/us/politics/02odonnell.html?ref=politicsOur fabulist heroine has been corrected by her father:To be an official Bozo, you had to go to a special school in Texas, explained Mr. ODonnell. He never did. Instead, he was asked to fill-in for the official Bozos whenever they would have to travel out of the Philadelphia area for acting gigs. They would leave, I would come in and work for two or three weeks, whatever, until the regular Bozo came back, Mr. ODonnell said. I was the fill-in Bozo.http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/send-in-the-clowns-and-the-truth-squad/?src=twt&twt=thecaucus

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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