Hey kids, I've got one about a ten-inch pianist

I'm a lover of victimless mail fraud. To me, nothing beats it for sheer entertainment.

So I was delighted to find out about The Senator Prank over at Zug.com. The premise: The proprietors of the site sent out a letter to all 100 members of the US Senate pretending to be a 10-old-boy with aspirations of a career in comedy, and asking each to include his or her favorite joke on the included response form.

Amazingly enough, many responded, including such high-profile figures as John McCain, Tom Daschle, Orrin Hatch, Rick Santorum, and Democratic presidental candidate John Kerry (at least, one of Kerry's aides responded). Some were funny (There's a reason McCain hosted Saturday Night Live, after all), some merely responded with lame excuses as to why they couldn't think of any jokes (Santorum not wanting to admit that the only jokes he's heard lately have him as their butt, thanks to sex columnist Dan Savage). Hillary Clinton, Arlen Specter, Trent Lott, and Ted Kennedy, on the other hand, couldn't be bothered to respond at all. Pretty lame, guys.

Upon reflection, my favorite response is that of Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who includes not only a kid-friendly gag, but also a stirring, inspirational call to arms:

Q: Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
A: He didn't have any guts!

Always have the guts to stand up for what you believe in.

Children of Maryland, you're lucky indeed to have a great lady and role model like that as your senator.