@MookyTroubadour: He started losing his marbles, really, when he was in his mid-sixties. It happens, truly. It didn't help that after 9/11 he was surrounded by lunatic, performatively nationalistic, money-grubbing, hyper-patriots inside of their own echo chamber. Between declining mental faculties and all that, he and they began believing their own schticks. It happens.

Also, fuck him. I'll be fine if he dies in prison, puts a gun in his mouth and bids adieu, winds up dying at the defense...