Emanuel, Emanuel, Emanuel

I'm having a delayed reaction to the wild Emanuel brothers appearance on Charlie Rose the other night, which was supposed to be about healthcare, but was not.

In a way it was about genetics.

Filial relatedness -- and not in a good way.

One brother, Ari, is the model for the monster agent, Ari, on HBO's Entourage.

One is some sort of holier-than-thou (wait 'til you're in pain, bucko) NIH ethicist-oncologist against assisted suicide.

(As the daughter of a dead cancer patient, alls I can say is: oy.)

Lastly, we have a "pitbull" congressman, a big "D" Democrat with a Republican personality.

Are you sensing the contradictions in this brood?

What I love about these guys is they are obviously all narcissistic but they wear the mantle of goodness like an Armani tux at a $20,000-a-plate fundraiser for the poor.

Charlie forgot about healthcare (hey, he's covered) and tried to get to the bottom of the brothers' respective and collective grandness.

Lot's of talk about values and service discussed at the childhood dinner table, which was very egalitarian and physically round, a mother who championed civil rights, a father who was a union supporter. . .

This with a Hollywood agent in the room.

Plus a lot of talk about report cards that were posted for all to see, fierce competition, achievement at all costs with a healthy sprinkle of that ultimate in moral contradictions (can you say "chosen people"?), modern-day Judaism.

By the end, I wanted to take a shower, call a therapist, renounce half my ethnicity and change my political party, not necessarily in that order.