By Evan Dawson, Managing Editor    

By now you've probably heard about the faux scandal involving Congressman Paul Ryan and his expensive bottles of Burgundy at a D.C. restaurant. If you somehow missed it, here's a quick summary:

Rep. Paul Ryan goes out to dinner with some wealthy friends.

Those friends decide to order two bottles of a $350 Burgundy.

A woman sitting nearby recognizes Rep. Ryan and looks up the price of the bottles.

The woman decides it's somehow incongruous for Rep. Ryan to talk about the government cutting spending while he's drinking expensive wine.

She also wonders if his dining partners are lobbyists seeking to buy influence.

They're not.

The woman yells at Rep. Ryan, lots of people freak out, but then most realize this whole thing is ridiculous.

As usual, wine writer Mike Steinberger has the best take on this fiasco. You can read it here. I had no idea that any Congressional Representative that talks about cutting spending must lead an impecunious private life.

But that's not what's bothering me today. See, the woman who raised a fuss wrote a column last week that is getting a lot of play. And in that column, she perpetuates the absurd notion that expensive equates to high quality. Susan Feinberg writes:

In the midst of heated debates between the president and Congress over slashing government spending, three men sat down to a nice dinner with a couple of great bottles of wine in an upscale Washington, D.C., restaurant…Calling these folks out for drinking $700 worth of wine while negotiating spending cuts that saddle others with all the burdens of