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It's an interesting juxtaposition: Dick Cheney can blow his hunting partner away, and the official White House reaction falls somewhere along the lines of, "Yeah, bummer...But, you know, Vice Presidential shit happens," but when Britney Spears is photographed driving with her baby in her lap, the Transportation Secretary uses the rather well-timed mishap to crown an honorary villain for his new child car seat safety campaign:

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on Monday chided pop star Britney Spears as "irresponsible" for driving with her baby son on her lap as he announced a new initiative to improve child car seat safety.

"Recent photos of Britney Spears driving with her infant son on her lap are troubling. And while Ms. Spears has acknowledged her mistake, her actions still send the wrong message to millions of her fans," Mineta said at an event at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to mark the start of Child Passenger Safety Week. [...]

"No matter who you are, there's absolutely no excuse for this display not instinct, not fear, not even reckless paparazzi," Mineta said. "It's irresponsible to compromise the safety of a child for the sake of the moment."

Hopefully Spears, who has just announced she will be participating in New Orleans' Mardi Gras festivities, can manage to put her ongoing car seat witchhunt ordeals behind her as she and husband Kevin Federline go about their bead-collecting rituals gone wild. In the meantime, government agencies can continue their new practice of scanning the pages of Star magazine, in search of new antihero poster celebrities for their morality campaigns. Next up: Katie Danza, Tony's daughter, the new face of the DEA's reefer addiction awareness program.