Katherine Harris	Brigitte Boisselier	Bride of Frankenstein

I happened to have CNN on yesterday when "Breaking News" interrupted regular programming to join Dr. Brigitte Boisselier's press conference alleging the birth of the first cloned human. Boisselier, a French chemist who testified before a US Congressional Committee in 2001 on the topic of cloning, bantered with the press in a bizarre scene that could have been directed by avant-garde filmmaker David Lynch.

Halfway through the press conference the anchor cut in to say that the event was being broadcast from Florida in a hotel north of Miami. Maybe it was the jowl similarity, but suddenly the image of another famous Floridian entered my mind: former Florida secretary of state and newly elected Republican member of congress Katherine Harris. During the 2000 vote count discrepancy debacle in Florida, Harris became a Democratic scourge and Republican delight as she stood firm in certifying the election results in George W. Bush's favor. Harris' public appearances at the time had a certain performance quality to them that made one wonder if the office of secretary of state was a role she was auditioning for, much like Boisselier yesterday seemed to be trying out for a part as a B-movie mad scientist.

Indeed, Boisselier's quick dismissal and even mockery of ethical questions related to cloning had a creepiness to it that had me imagining a sequal to the Bride of Frankenstein in which our heroine becomes a cloning chemist. Is it too late to clone another Elsa Lanchester for the part?

Already, opportunistic politicians are falling all over themselves trying to be the first ones to ban human cloning in the United States. Perhaps cloning should be banned. On the other hand, I'm sure the sensational event exploitation execs at CNN, Fox News, and other cable TV outlets--a group of execs in their own way as ethically challenged as Boisselier--are already planning for the future production of TCZ. That's "The Clone Zone," a "news magazine" by, for, and about the clone population with clones of Paula Zahn, Geraldo Rivera, Bill O'Reilly, and Connie Chung as hosts.

Tony Palmeri welcomes feedback from clones and non-clones alike

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