There was something of a three-ring freak show over at the National Press Club yesterday, where convicted felon Larry Sinclair appeared at a press conference attended by a group of gawking international reporters. For those of you who don't follow crackpot theories about major national political figures, here's the basic story: Larry Sinclair, a professional weirdo who has been in the past successfully prosecuted for crimes involving lying, like forgery and bad checks, has been claiming a bunch of really, really outlandish stuff about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Pretty much no serious person believes this guy, but you can read more about him and his story at the Politico.

What interested us in the Sinclair saga was not the Obama accusations, but what went down yesterday at the National Press Club. David Weigel of Reason Magazine was there to capture the scene in all it's insane glory.

... Sinclair's lawyer Montgomery Sibley—whose license is currently suspended in D.C. and Florida—showed up in a kilt and told reporters that his above-average endowment made slacks tight and uncomfortable. The Rev. James David Manning, who gained web celebrity in April for a YouTube'd sermon in which he called Obama a "long-legged mack daddy," sat in the crowd of 50 or so with his family. He didn't take questions.

How did Sinclair hold up? Rather terribly. He started with a lengthy statement that admitted most (not all) of his crimes and dispatched Sibley to run around the room with a microphone.

Over at Daily Kos, a discussion thread popped up speculating that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty had been alerted to Sinclair's event and must have helped to facilitate his arrest, given that he's such a vocal Obama supporter. "His arrest didn’t come from us," Fenty spokesperson Dena Iverson told DCist. So much for crackpot theories about major political figures.