YEARS AGO, in the wake of Zoe Baird’s confirmation hearings–in which our would-be attorney general was disqualified for failing to report her nanny’s income–Gary Trudeau did a series of “Doonesbury” strips that pointed up the absurdity of such scandal-hunting. In the most outre of them, his liberal dowager Lacey Davenport, up for confirmation in a minor post, had passed all her vetting when someone brought up her frequent-flier miles: Had she declared them as income?

Like most things that will never happen, this one has. In Germany, a half-dozen of the country’s most prominent politicians have had to resign over what is being called the Bonusmeilen-Affaere. Politicians in Germany who fly a lot have tended to use the miles they accumulate for personal trips and vacation. Since 1997, it has been the law that they’re supposed to transfer these miles to some central government office for redemption, but it’s not a law to which anyone has paid particular attention.