Joe Klein, who recently left The New Yorker to become chief Washington correspondent for Time, says American politics - indeed, our national leaders - are in a sad state.

The "Primary Colors" author warns in his soon-to-be-released book, "Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid," that disillusionment is growing on both sides of the political aisle, chiseling away at Washington's integrity.

Today's leaders, he said, are less interested in leading than they are in their "permanent campaign," admonishing: "If you're going to lead, you'd best be willing to show them something of yourself, something that hasn't been pureed by pollsters.

"If you want them to take a risk, you're going to have to take one yourself. Sadly, most politicians are neither risk-takers nor leaders. They are followers - of convention, of public opinion - and while leadership is an art, followship has become a science, measured in polls and focus groups."

Klein considers Democratic Sen. John Kerry's bid for the White House in 2004 one of the most dismal political runs in history, reflecting how traits like courage, spontaneity and leadership have all disappeared from our political landscape.

He's no more impressed with political journalism, especially as reported on TV, which is "little more than the slavish devotion to polls." Then there's "the banalities of political punditry" - endless appearances by everybody and their mothers on the 24-hour cable news shows.

The "fact that pundits - people like me - are so often crashingly wrong makes it all the more pathetic," Klein writes. "Pundits, like pollsters, get most of their information by looking in the rearview mirror."

PROUD DAD

A new satellite radio sports show hosted by former Bill Clinton strategist James Carville and his collegian sidekick Luke Russert, son of NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, is cause for a cocktail reception this Thursday evening in the studios of XM Satellite Radio overlooking New York Avenue NE.

Promotion of the reception, co-hosted by Capitol File magazine, and the show is best left to XM's executive vice president Eric Logan, who draws attention to the unlikely radio pairing's "amazing chemistry and energy."

Earlier this year, Tim Russert came under fire for his "ethical lapse" in promoting his son's show while hosting his otherwise hard-hitting NBC Sunday news program. Or as blogger Arianna Huffington sharply critiqued the plug: Mr. Russert's "unseemly use of 'Meet the Press' to promote James Carville's new XM radio sports show while refusing to come clean about the fact that Carville's co-host is Russert's college-age son."

Carville and the younger Russert, a sophomore at Boston College, came up with the idea of hosting the show as their two families sat together at Washington Nationals baseball games. A graduate of St. Albans in Washington, Russert's resume supplied by XM reads like that of any privileged son with access to major sporting events:

"An avid sports fan, by the time he was 16 he had attended two Super Bowls, a World Series, five Major League Baseball All-Star Games, an NBA final, four NBA All- Star Games, two NCAA Final Fours, an NHL Stanley Cup Final, a U.S. Open and The Preakness Stakes."

NOT SO PAINFUL

Filed your taxes yet?

Since the April 15 statutory deadline for income tax filing falls on a Saturday this year, the IRS has pushed the deadline to the next business day. So breathe easier, your 2005 income tax return is due Monday, April 17.

For readers who complain their taxes are far too high - and we've heard from plenty of you in recent weeks - why not consider the personal tax burdens of other countries. Continued...