Embarrassing Children of Famous Leaders, Part MCMXIIV

This may not rise to the height of parental political humiliation achieved by Patti Davis by posing for Playboy, but the unfolding saga of Margaret Thatcher's son is not bad.

Mark Thatcher, described sometimes as a 51-year-old "race car driver" (is that some sort of Eurotrash shorthand for bum or male prostitute?), has been arrested for "allegedly aiding a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea," according to Bloomberg News. Whole story here.

Somewhere, somehow on a conserative Web site, I suspect someone is analyzing this tawdry tale as a latter-day version of Rebel Without a Cause, with young Mark's acting out the predictable result of a household in which the mother calls all the shots and the Jim Backus-like dad (i.e., Denis Thatcher) wears an apron.

In any case, here's looking forward to seeing Mark Thatcher on the next politically tinged season of Surreal Life, maybe as a housemate of Roger Clinton, Neil Bush, and Wes Edwards (Cain to Sen. John Edwards' Abel).