"The feckless behavior of the Bush administration has been a lurid illustration of Noam Chomsky's books – which I've always considered half lunatic."

Camille Paglia sits down with Salon for this fearless, contrarian interview. Subjects: "Robo-Hillary," the Bush administration's provincialism, Democratic hypocrisy over the Mark Foley page scandal, and Fox News ("what is this shibboleth about Fox as some sort of satanic force in American politics? Get over it!"). A sample:

After three or four days of it, as soon as I heard Foley's name, I turned the sound off or switched channels. It was gargantuan overkill, and I felt the Democrats were shooting themselves in the foot. I was especially repulsed by the manipulative use of a gay issue for political purposes by my own party. I think it was not only poor judgment but positively evil. Whatever short-term political gain there is, it can only have a negative impact on gay men. When a moralistic, buttoned-up Republican like Foley is revealed to have a secret, seamy gay life, it simply casts all gay men under a shadow and makes people distrust them. Why don't the Democratic strategists see this? These tactics are extremely foolish. Gay men through history have always been more vulnerable to public hysteria than are lesbians, who -- unless they're out there parading around in all-leather bull-dyke drag -- simply fit more easily into the cultural landscape than do gay men, who generally lead a more adventurous, pickup-oriented sex life.