I’M SORRY, BUT A BETTER ENDING FOR MAD MEN WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR HIM TO WAKE UP IN BED WITH SUZANNE PLESHETTE AND REALIZE IT WAS ALL A DREAM.

SO I GUESS ABC NEWS AND STEPHANOPOULOS HOPED THE SCANDAL WOULD DIE DOWN OVER THE WEEKEND. Since that didn’t happen, what will they do next?

Related: George Stephanopoulos Has Forfeited All Trust As A Newsman.

Plus: Stephanopoulos’s long, long record of loyal service to the Clintons. Including an astonishing finding by Judge Royce Lamberth.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ASU’s Answer to the Admissions Scandal at UT-Austin:

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Arizona State University president Michael Crow discussed the steps that ASU has taken to improve the quality of education offered.

President Crow outlined ASU’s approach, emphasizing its inclusivity, from the use of technology—like the “eAdvisor” program for online learners—to a partnership with Starbucks. But, behind the tech-heavy offerings, was an even more promising phenomenon—a president who understands that inclusivity is not achieved through ever-expanding enrollment and the erosion of admissions standards. Said President Crow of state funding for higher ed: “Our argument to the state has been that you fund us for the wrong thing; it shouldn’t be our enrollment but what we produce.”

That’s a rare outlook among today’s higher ed executives—or so the excuses offered by University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers would have led us to believe. President Powers defended himself this past February, against allegations that he had admitted unqualified applicants to UT-Austin, by claiming that “everyone else does it.” But we should not allow the revelations of a cozy system of privilege that rewarded the politically connected at the expense of academic standards, more deserving students, and a basic sense of integrity, to be brushed off so lightly.

Have you noticed that the people who talk about equality the most are the people who are most invested in a system that provides special deals for insiders?

RAND PAUL ON HILLARY’S WAR OF CHOICE IN LIBYA: “They should ask her, ‘Was it a good idea to invade Libya? Did that make us less safe? Did it make it more chaotic? Did it allow radical Islam and I.S.I.S. to grow stronger?'”

FLASHBACK: When George Stephanopoulos visited Jeffrey Epstein’s Pedo Island. Hey, Bill Clinton was there, too.

TO BE FAIR, THEY LABOR UNDER EVEN SLEAZIER ONE-PARTY GOVERNMENT: 15 Baltimore neighborhoods have lower life expectancies than North Korea.

JOEL KOTKIN: At The Mercy Of The Climate Jihadists:

Years ago, I heard the Jewish comedian Jackie Mason performing in Beverly Hills, riffing on the primary motivation of wealthy liberals. They do things, he suggested, not because they actually accomplished anything, but because “I have to look at myself in the mirror.”

Mason was prophetic, particularly regarding here in California, where progressive politics – outside of promoting race and gender grievances – has boiled down to a single-minded attachment to slowing climate change.

To satisfy the gentry’s urgent need to feel noble and better than others, we are embarked on an ever-more extreme jihad to battle global warming, with the state, pursuant to an executive order from Gov. Jerry Brown, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 – versus the previous mandate of reaching 1990 levels by 2020. It seems clear that we are about to wage a war of increasing intensity on climate change, surely not at the expense of depriving Google executives and other oligarchs their private jets, but certainly down to the last affordable single-family house or decent factory job. . . .

Yet such problems do not seem to impinge much on Sacramento’s political class. Any group willing, as is most egregiously the case with the Latino caucus, to wage war on their own people, are not going to worry too much about such subtleties.

So then, who wins? It’s certainly not the environment, but some of the oligarchs in Silicon Valley may benefit as they have been feeding at the renewable-energy trough at the expense of less-well-off ratepayers. Then there’s the whole bureaucracy, and their academic allies, who can enjoy profitable employment by dreaming up new ways to make life in California more expensive and difficult for average citizens – envisioning schemes that the taxpayers have to finance. And, certainly, the climate change agenda could benefit multifamily housing builders, who will seek to force often-unwilling Californians into residences in which most would rather not spend their lives.

Yes. I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis — instead of just filling their pockets, and their egos, at the expense of others.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO COMMIT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: WNBA Newlyweds Suspended 7 Games over Domestic Violence Incident. “Newlywed WNBA players Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson each received a seven-game suspension from the league on Friday for a domestic violence incident in April.” And they looked so adorable and loving on Say Yes To The Dress.

IN 2010, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WAS TALKING ABOUT IRAQ AS A SUCCESS. THEN IN 2011, THEY SKEDADDLED. NOW, IN 2015, IT’S GONE TO HELL AND THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT 2003. Ramadi falls.

Let’s put it bluntly: There is little evidence the president’s minimalist approach to fight the Islamic State is working. (Boot says bluntly: “The fall of Ramadi is a sign of the abysmal failure of the misnamed Operation Inherent Resolve launched by President Obama in August 2014 to ‘degrade’ and ultimately to ‘destroy’ ISIS. Operation Uncertain Resolve is more like it.”) Rather than recognize realities on the ground, acknowledge the Islamic State is gaining in strength and recruits and then reassess our strategy, the White House poses another false choice — do what we are doing or reoccupy the country. The alternative of course is what the military has consistently recommended — a more substantial U.S. ground force to provide training, intelligence, forward spotting, etc. Instead, Iraqi militias are cementing their relationship with Iran, which is becoming dominant in Iraq.

Boot argues, ” The real debate we should be having is not what we should have done in 2003 but what we should do now, today, to defeat ISIS and Iran — the twin forces, mirror images of one another — that are ripping the Middle East asunder. All of the candidates, including the silent Hillary Clinton, need to tell us what they would do.” But it’s so much easier to second guess a decision made 12 years ago than to set forth a workable plan to defeat the Islamic State and to stem Iran’s aggressive moves throughout the region.

And, as a famous man says, let me be clear: The press is asking about 2003 to give Obama cover for his policy failures now. And not for any other reason.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Clintons earned $25 million in speaking fees since start of 2014.