"Indiana is clearly a state with a lot of political excitement."

New York Times columnist Gail Collins takes on Indiana's residency flap today.

As she writes, "Of all the issues you can raise in a political campaign, the dumbest is whether a member of Congress has moved his/her family to Washington."

She continues, "The issue of voting addresses is particularly sensitive in Indiana, where the secretary of state, Charlie White, was recently tossed out of office after being convicted of registering to vote at his former wife’s address while he actually lived with his fiancée. White, who once worked as a family law attorney, said his private life was 'complicated', which I’m sure we’re all prepared to believe."

And, she concludes: "These residency flaps are generally bogus. If we want a Congress that looks at least minimally like the country at large — including women, men with working wives, and parents of young children — we can’t carp if they want to keep their families within commuting distance."

Read it all here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/opinion/collins-anywhere-i-hang-my-hat.html