The Guardian newspaper this week printed one of those immortal headlines that not only boils the blood but leaves one frozen in incredulity. It reads: 'People despise politicians but whose fault is that?'
It looms over an article written by a convicted criminal who abandoned his wife and three children for a lover, who lied to everyone and has clearly still not been forgiven by his own family, who spent years shamelessly greasing up to the great and the good in order to further his career, whose shameless arrogance has lost him most of the friends he thought he once had, whose investment portfolio in mining, oil companies and tax shelters grew at the same time as he urged the nation to pay more green taxes to 'save the planet', who was forced to apologise for his infamously unpleasant and innuendo-strewn 'Calamity Clegg' dossier, who got taxpayers to fork out the cash to buy him fluffy dusters and a trouser press on his expenses. Oh yes, and he's a politician.
Disgraced Chris Huhne is the former Liberal Democrat MP who was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice when he persuaded his wife to take his speeding points. This week he has decided to blame someone else, or a group of people, for his woes - Rupert Murdoch and journalists.
You see it was their evil conniving, their disreputable tactics, their bloodthirsty desire for the 'kill' that destroyed his career (though let's not forget that this multi-millionaire has now reinvented himself as a highly-paid special corporate adviser).
In the article, Huhne does have the good grace to take some of the blame: 'I am no saint (but nor did I claim to be)', he admits through gritted teeth. But then he continues: 'Politicians have to live with a 24-hour media which is more intrusive and hurtful for the people they love, and this is having a corrosive effect on how the public view politicians, and politics itself.'
Perhaps I can use my own words to translate what I feel he really means: 'Once upon a time transgressing politicians might have got away with it but, unfortunately, now the media is able to shine a light on everything we do and the public has constant, instant access to that, so they can catch us out really easily. It's so unfair.'
Huhne was unable to get into the Radio 4 studio on Monday morning (the rules of his early release from prison mean he must be electronically tagged and stay at home between 7pm-7am) so was on the phone bleating on the Today programme about how unfair it all was that Rupert Murdoch has such a stranglehold on the media and if anyone crosses such powerful individuals - as Huhne did in his crusade to break up ownership - they will no doubt be vilified and brutally targeted.
You could almost see presenter Sarah Montague's incredulous expression - 'are you really blaming everyone else for your predicament, don't you think you really ought to shut up?' - her voice seemed to imply.
But no. For this is the new political age in which we live. In which sorry seems to be the hardest word, the fault is always someone else's and dignified silence is unheard of.
Yes, people do despise politicians but if Mr Huhne can't figure out why then prison really hasn't taught him the lesson most of us thought it would.