Let's learn a few things about Sen. James Inhofe

There is a place, I know, for political "personality" stories. It can be helpful to hear from the horse's mouth on certain things, especially when we spend so very much time looking at the horse from the other end. So I confess to being a bit more generous on these sorts of stories than most; yes, those stories are mostly self-serving dreck, but it's the kind of self-serving dreck that can inform via the meta bits of things: What sort of information is the target peddling that he/she feels makes them look good? What sort of flattery do others provide, and what is the probable motive behind it?

No sir, there is at least a little Kremlinology to be had in these puff pieces, and so I am perfectly willing to read this latest one with an open heart, ready to receive whatever little wisdom can be gleaned:

Jim Inhofe just wants to be loved.

Oh goddamn it, Politico. Too far.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is well-known for being provocative — he opposes women in combat, opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and claims that global warming is a “hoax”— but his ideological purity masks a deeper sensitivity about his place among colleagues.

And Hitler wanted to be a painter, and at least some of America's top serial killers could be pretty snazzy dressers if they wanted to be. You made me go full Godwin in the first two damn paragraphs.

“[John McCain] — he does change, from day to day, in terms of his position with me. Some days I get the impression that he really doesn’t care for me,” Inhofe says. “John is a little erratic in some of his treatment of people, including me.”

How much of that is oversensitivity? Asked about their relationship, McCain said that Inhofe is doing an “excellent job” as the committee’s top Republican, and that he has “great respect” for the Oklahoman.

And we're off on a short two-page story of Inhofe as delicate little flower, the man who can be the Senate's most dedicated asshole but who still gets along with his fellow senators because at this point, everyone pretty much expects him to be an asshole. He's a part of the asshole furniture of the place, and blends right in.

All right, all right: Think positive. Thanks to this "personality" story, we now know what Inhofe "prefers collegiality, inclusiveness and discussion" and that while he believes global warming is a "hoax," he can get nervous when his aides follow him around. There's no particular insight on his habit of gumming up the works of the entire government whenever James Inhofe gets a bug up his posterior about any given sub-issue that may or may not be even slightly related to the thing that has embuggened him, but at least we know he would feel just terrible if the other senators got angry with him for doing that all the time.

That's all I got. But Jim Inhofe just wants to be loved sets a new bar on these things; if we next get a Senate color story on how Sen. Jim DeMint loves kittens and therefore does not eat them, at least not unless he's more peckish than usual, I don't think I'm going to be reading that one. I've been soured on the whole genre now.