In politics, you know you're in trouble when no one will take your calls.

You know you're a political corpse when erstwhile allies feel its safe to diss you. George McGovern reveals that he voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter.

"I have to tell you something I've never said before publicly. I voted for him in 1976."

More: "I thought he had come in at a difficult time. I didn't know President Carter very well then. And I just felt more comfortable somehow with Jerry Ford. Whereupon my wife Eleanor said, so did I vote for him. We went around that table -- this is hard to believe -- all five of my kids voted for him. So they get seven votes out of the McGovern family for President Ford and Senator Dole, my long-time Republican friend" ("LKL," CNN, 1/2).

Carter appears to have finally jumped the shark with his disgraceful misrepresentation of the Palestinian conflict.