BUSH ADVISER: SEX 'NEEDS TO BE GOVERNED'

Karl Zinsmeister, the new domestic policy adviser to President Bush, is nothing if not provocative. But he's also shy about admitting to past remarks. After being appointed, Zinsmeister changed quotes from a Syracuse New Times profile; instead of saying people in Washington were "morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings," Zinsmeister altered the quote to read:

"I learned in Washington that there is an 'overclass' in this country stocked with cheating, shifty human beings that's just as morally repugnant as our 'underclass.'"

Damned repugnant underclass.

But that's nothing compared to Zinsmeister's feelings about sex. In a sitdown with PBS' "Think Tank" program, Zinsmeister said:

[S]ex is the opposite of casual. It’s something -- it’s intense; it’s fire. It drives people to insanity. People do unbelievable things for it. It is the last part of life that I would categorize as kind of, you know, take it or leave it. And my point is that when you are playing with fire you have to be careful. That this is an area where people become inflamed even when they don’t think they’re going to become inflamed.

People fall in love with prostitutes. People kill prostitutes. All kinds of things happen in the heat of sexual passion, so my point is because it’s fire it needs to be governed and treated with respect and treated carefully.

Insane in the membrane.