Not So Helpful

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Former CBS News Producer Mary Mapes (search), who was fired for her role in that discredited report on President Bush's National Guard service is lashing out at network brass in a new book. Mapes says CBS President Les Moonves (search), who is married to a reporter has proved "that everything he knows about journalism has been sexually transmitted." ... And she argues that CBS News President Andrew Heyward brought in other executives to manage the story so that "if something went wrong, he could blame them."

The New York Daily News reports that Mapes does have kind words for Dan Rather (search) though, insisting he was forced out at the Evening News so that CBS could "settle its differences with an angry and vindictive administration."

PC Prize

The Collegiate Network has released its 8th annual Campus Outrage awards, a catalogue of what it sees as the year's most egregious examples of political correctness. Second place goes to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where Economics professor Hans Hoppe was disciplined for citing studies showing that homosexuals tend to plan less for the future than heterosexuals, largely because most do not have children.

And at the top is LeMoyne College (search) in Syracuse, New York, which expelled an A-student from its graduate education program after he wrote a paper advocating light spanking in elementary school classrooms. The college threw him out of school altogether, citing what it called a "difference in philosophy."

Not So Helpful

If you're one of the 872,000 people who called the IRS (search) for help on your taxes, you may be talking to them again. According to a new report from a Treasury Inspector General (search), IRS customer service representatives provided callers with accurate information about their taxes just 62 percent of the time last year.

You can complain online, of course, but that form has been moved to a place the IG said was so hard to locate that you'd have to "stumble upon it accidentally to find it."

Haley to the Chief?

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (search) told reporters yesterday that he doesn't intend to run for president in 2008 — despite recent speculation that the 57-year-old Republican might indeed enter the race. Barbour recently won the "Presidential March Madess" contest — an on-line poll pitting Republican presidential potentials against each other. When reporters pressed Barbour on the issue, asking him if he'd change his mind and decide to run after all — the portly Barbour said anything's possible, adding, "I guess I might also lose 50 pounds and grow 4 inches."

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report