And another thing …

Hippocratic, not hypocritical. Conservative lawmakers routinely complain about the “nanny-state,” “junk lawsuits” and “junk science,” but that didn’t stop Idaho Rep. Ann Rydalch, R-Idaho Falls, from floating legislation that embraces all three.

Her proposed law would require the state to provide doctors with color photographs of fetuses and videotape of ultrasounds at various stages of development. Doctors are then mandated to use this information to describe to women the physical characteristics of a fetus before performing an abortion. Scofflaws would face fines up to $5,000 and exposure to lawsuits if a woman wanted to sue for wrongful death after having an abortion.

In addition, doctors would be required to tell women that an abortion puts them at a greater risk for breast cancer. The National Institutes says there is no such link.

What the state needs is a ban on junk legislation.

Testing, testing, testing a friendship. Shades of Linda Tripp, whose tape-recorded phone conversation with Monica Lewinsky figured prominently in the sex scandal that led to President Clinton’s impeachment.

Now it’s Doug Wead, who secretly recorded his one-time friend President Bush and has released some of the tapes already and is threatening to release others. By the way, he’s promoting a book on presidential parents, “The Raising of a President.”

Wead was smarter than Tripp, or at least luckier. She taped her conversations with Lewinsky in Maryland where you can’t do that without the other party’s consent. A federal grand jury has indicted her on wiretapping charges.

Wead did his taping in Texas, where Bush was governor at the time and where his consent wasn’t required. Meanwhile, the taped excerpts he has released, in which Bush clearly implies he once used marijuana, tell us nothing that most of the public hasn’t already apprehended by now — young Bush was a rebellious rascal who abused a substance or two.

The whole episode also reinforces another bit of common knowledge that Tripp and others have illustrated before. If you’re famous, beware of friends who carry tape recorders.