Hardly a dry eye in the Judiciary Committee chamber the other day when Maine motorcycle clubs — Hell’s Angels, Exiles, Saracens and others — asked for protection under the state Human Rights Act, claiming they are victims of discrimination by restaurants and bars. Up next: The No Shirt/No Shoes Association of Maine demands service.

The Virginia Legislature has been heaped with some well-deserved national ridicule lately after it squandered an entire day arguing about whether Pamunkey loam should be the state’s official soil. You won’t find Maine lawmakers frittering away the taxpayer’s time on such frivolity — their bill to make Chesuncook soil our designated dirt is expected to sail through without objection.

Scarcely one-third of the nearly 3,000 bills before the Maine Legislature this session have been printed, but already the best of the bunch, the undeniable pick of the litter, is revealed: An Act to Name the East-West Highway the Ronald Reagan International Highway. As the debate on this worthwhile project begins, let the cry ring out from Calais to Coburn Gore — Pave one for the Gipper.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell warned in a speech the other day the greatest problem posed by the new millenium won’t be computer glitches but the appearance of the Antichrist, adding specific information that the embodiment of evil is a male Jew now in his late 20s. The reverend has since apologised, saying he spoke rashly and did not mean to offend his Jewish friends. Besides, he’s also got his suspicions about a certain elderly Presbyterian lady.

Reformer, reform thyself: A study of last fall’s congressional elections found the influence of soft money — campaign contributions not regulated by federal law — growing at an alarming rate, although not always producing the desired result. Case in point, the Kentucky Senate race, the most expensive in that state’s history: Republican Jim Bunning won, despite being outspent considerably by Democrat Scotty Baesler. Baesler’s largest soft-money donation was $325,000 from Campaign for America, a group that supports campaign finance reform.