Aside from the whiny Norm Coleman, who never deserved to sit in Paul Wellstone's Senate seat, the person whose dilemma over which we must cackle with glee is Tim Pawlenty. The governor of Minnesota, a Republican with 2012 aspirations, is in a no-win situation. If Coleman refuses to withdraw his legal legal challenges and Minnesota is left with one Senator for months, Pawlenty (a cheery champion of bipartisanship and getting stuff done) will get pressured, as the titular leader of his state party, to urge Normie to drop out. So either he eventually disgusts his constituents by allowing the Coleman charade to continue, or he completely enrages his party's wing-nut base by telling Coleman to move on. You almost gotta feel sorry for the guy — except, of course, since he's a Republican, you don't.

Four and a half more days, everyone. Four and a half more days. And then we're free.

I watched it live on TV and enjoyed it almost as much as you did. We had the same reactions to everything, and I couldn't agree with you more about Garth Brooks. Except, not having seen "Wedding Crashers" (and I'm probably the only person in America who hasn't), during "Shout" I could only flash back on "Animal House" and the toga party.

At "This Land Is Your Land," I almost fainted with joy. And I was certain that the very thin slice of America that refuses to join in this week's big national celebration — the rabid right wing, whose comments I've been surfing at some of their message boards lately — must have blown a gasket when Pete Seeger stepped onstage.

What drives the Rush Limbaughs and Michelle Malkins of the world most crazy? I think they resent that the patriotic trappings of American pomp and ceremony, such as the ones at this afternoon's concert, are, in their view, being used in the service of Obama now. I've seen postings by right wingers declaring that they'll never fly their American flags again until Obama is out of office. I can't say I feel sorry for them. Obama is not excluding them — far from it, from his first speech on the night of Nov. 4 he's held out an olive branch to them. Still, a few folks just won't be appeased.

Payback for the awful Bush co-opting of September 11? I don't know. Like you, I'm having too good a time to think about it.

But Elizabeth Dole deserves to be forgotten.

The transfer of power at noon on January 20 occurs regardless of any oath-taking. Please stop giving the right wing-nutbags something else silly to scream about.

While I'm dismayed by the word "dispositive" — it sounds so, well, so Beltway-y — it's in my Webster's. It's an adjective meaning "that disposes of, or settles, a dispute, question, etc.; conclusive; decisive."

Now, just because it's a word, that doesn't mean we should all start using it. But we've all learned something today.

While I'm not interested in reading and dishing online about these subjects (some things, in my book, should remain private, or between you and your doctor), I think this makes it very clear that sex and health hygiene education in the schools is critically important. I don't know if what I was taught in the late Sixties-early Seventies is still presented in the public schools. (There have been a lot of Republicans in office since then.) But I can testify that while we girls learned about tampons and their incredible benefits, at the same time we were cautioned to make sure we'd always removed the last one. Incidents of toxic shock syndrome later underscored the seriousness of being forgetful.

Unfortunately, the question of women's health and even their lives often gets lost in all the ick.

On the "inside baseball" front, apparently the White House had indicated that it would be very present at the table when it came to the 2010 census, and Gregg balked at having his power diluted. But if you think about that, you realize that the 2010 census ultimately will have a huge effect on Congressional redistricting. Methinks that Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans told Gregg that he couldn't possibly preside over the proper counting of minorities — and the subsequent gaining of Democratic seats.

Amazing what you find when you start peeling away layers of the onion.

I think even those of us who support Barack Obama don't fully understand what we've got with him. He's a revelation to me every day. What I think I HAVE figured out is that he's a master at that multi-dimensional chess game they used to play on "Star Trek." He's not only smarter than everyone else in the room, he seems to have the singular ability to detach himself from the political passions of the day and strategize beyond them. Much of what he does is calculated for an effect that the myopic media (not to mention the Republicans) can't see because it will take place way down the road.

Holding out constant olive branches to GOP members of Congress is just the latest example of this. We rabid partisans didn't see it coming, but it's borne out by the polls: most people in this country don't give a rat's ass about party loyalty and are truly disgusted with the Republicans' behavior. So the more gracious Obama is to the GOP miscreants, the better it is for us Democrats. I know it's hard to wrap our arms around this, because it's been a long, horrible eight years. But I think Obama is right, and very clever, to do this.

And excuse me, "publicly humiliated"? I think not. I don't think we'll ever see the day when Barack Obama is publicly humiliated. It was Gregg who came off looking like an indecisive lamebrain. And if you think Obama was the least bit rattled by Judd's sudden defection, just watch him at Thursday night's Lincoln Day Dinner in Springfield. He is someone who's in clear, confident command of himself, and no one, especially not the pathetic Mr. Gregg, can dent that.