Somebody made a comment to me this morning regarding US AG John Ashcroft's visit to Seattle, to which I flippantly responded,

"It's funny how important and powerful he's become even after he lost a Senate seat to a dead guy."

My colleague laughed, so I guess this struck him as funny. But really, when you look back at the last couple of years, there's been some profound changes in our country. And most of us, me included, don't always pay attention when we should. And it's often not very funny.