When wrong becomes right

It just keeps getting better for Phil Mickelson, who last week set fire to himself by aligning himself with gangsters even while admitting they were gangsters. 

Now Saudi Arabia's proposed Super-Duper Golf League (a Super-Duper embellishment of the actual name) has evaporated like a drop of water on an August sidewalk, and Lefty's sponsors are deserting him in droves. But not for the reason you think.

They're deserting him not because he aligned himself with, as he called them, "scary mother****ers". Oh, no. They're deserting him because he CALLED them "scary mother****ers."

Weirdly and suddenly, this transforms Mickelson from bad guy to victim, because, well, when he said what he said about the Saudis, he was only speaking the truth. What made it contemptible was that he was willing to buddy up to them anyway for his own purposes.

Now the contempt must shift to the sponsors who are dropping him, because they have revealed themselves to be craven toadies for oppressors and butchers. Among the perps are KPMG, a major business player in Saudi Arabia for three decades; Callaway, Mickelson's golf sponsor who disavowed Mickelson's comments instead of applauding them the way it should have; and American Express, the title sponsor of the Desert Classic tournament for whom Mickelson was the host and whose foundation was the tournament's charity.

But, hey. I'm sure their business dealings with the Saudis are quite lucrative.

And may they choke on all that dough.