While the Mandarin is on holiday for a week or so.....

Perhaps one of his loyal readers can explain what the hell is going on in this picture. The Mandarin knows that Katherine Harris, both a proponent and an example of intelligent design, is fighting for her political life in the Florida Senate race, but what does paying $400 for a possum have to do with it?

The press description wasn't completely enlightening on the point:

You're not likely to catch Katherine Harris doing this in her hometown of Longboat Key. But she was a long way culturally and geographically from her well-heeled seaside community. She was in the middle of the Possum Palace holding a scruffy-looking marsupial by the tail, adroitly shaking it to prevent the creature from crawling up her arm. She paid $400 in an auction for the privilege.

And the U.S. Senate candidate was impressing the locals with her possum-handling skills. "That gal knows how to shake a possum," the auctioneer drawled.


Original photo caption: U. S. Congresswoman Katherine Harris, R-Florida, holds up a possum she purchased at the Wausau Possum Festival, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, in Wausau, Fla. Harris is a candidate for the U. S. Senate.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)