A white woman wins a lawsuit after elected officials reveal that they're sensitive to racial diversity

No, it couldn't, which is why Howard's case looks kind of silly. Her complaint essentially asked the jury to punish elected officials for being sensitive to racial politics, which seems unfair.

Howard understands the game. Her husband, Victor, is an appeals-court judge appointed to the bench by former governor Mel Carnahan. She has donated to the campaigns of Claire McCaskill and John Kerry. In charity golf events, she has teamed up with Molly Korth Williams, the sister of Christopher Korth, a lawyer on the nominating commission that sent her name to the City Council.

Those who seek office do so with the understanding that it's not a meritocracy. (Because, boy, if it were, most of them would be doing something else.) By filing suit, Howard sought to inject objectivity into a process that's not all that different from a vote for homecoming queen.

It's hard for Howard not to sound obtuse when she's making her case. What happened in the City Council a year and a half ago, she says, was not a political discussion but an illegal discussion.

"We never really got to the political part," she tells me. "You know, political would have something to do with politics. This just had to do with race. Race isn't supposed to be what politicians are all about.... When you're trying to disenfranchise people, that's illegal — that's not political."

Technically, Howard might be a victim.

But is it OK to call her a bad sport, too?

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