I truly wish that Democrats were a little less inclined to eat their young.

I don’t just identify with Elizabeth Warren because of her politics.  We are both midwest girls, born about six months apart, and raised in that economic grey zone that could only aspire to middle class.

Being something of a romantic in my adolescence, I longed to have a more compelling origin story.  I expect that is why I readily accepted the family myth that, through my great- grandmother whose surname was “James,” we could claim the legendary Jesse James as a distant cousin.  Even though, as years went by, I came to understand that the connection was purely apocryphal, the story remained so much a part of my personal fabric that when my son came along, I named him “Jesse” in fond tribute to the myth, if not the man.

I was finally told by my aunt that  it was nothing more than a tall family tale, constructed by an unreliable cousin; before then, if I had been required to complete some boring form and came across a question where I might write in answer that I was a distant cousin to Jesse James, I surely would have done so without hesitation.

We all want a little romance in our lives.  When we were very young and had no story of our own, we pestered our parents to tell us about our family history.  “Irish, English, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scottish,” we proudly repeated to our far more interesting friends.  “Pennsylvania Dutch” isn’t even a nationality, but that’s what we were told and that’s what we believed.  Jesse James was just the icing on the cake of our constructed identity.

I imagine Elizabeth Warren feels a little foolish about the whole thing; but now that the cat is out of the bag she will spend the rest of her public career apologizing and trying to change the subject.  

The only people who might have a right to an opinion on the matter are members of the Cherokee nation, and even they should recognize that what she did wasn’t exploitation.  It was tribute; the ultimate compliment.

If fancying herself Native American is the worst charge against her, she’s an authentic angel by Capitol Hill standards.

So I say to the braying mob, “Snap out of it!” We’ve got far bigger fish to fry!