That's George W. Bush for you. First, he unites the African-American community of New Orleans with the African-American community of Houston — thanks to a little event that he screwed up called Katrina. Now, because of everything he's done (and not done) in the Middle East, Bush has united the leader of the Conservative party in Britain with Jack Layton, the leader of the lefty New Democratic party in Canada, who recently called for Canadian troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Gosh, he's just amazing!

Sometimes I think it's truly a privilege — although a dubious one — to be a registered voter in Florida. I do not live in Mark Foley's former district, although I can tell you as a former Carter person that there was a time (in other words, 1976) when Mark Foley was a Democrat and a Carter supporter and patently, obviously, acceptingly (at least, to us) gay. Since those innocent times, he went over to the enemy and proceeded to live a double life which we Democrats, as more decent human beings than Republicans, did not feel able to "out" him on. However, as a public figure, Foley lived inside the closet in his home district but cavorted flagrantly outside it in the more tolerant confines of Washington, D.C. — even escorting men to public events, we understand. This was a source of some frustration to us Democrats because we saw hypocrisy lurking. But we didn't feel that outing the guy was "our job," because it would better be an intraparty event (the current Florida gubernatorial race a case in point, I can't help thinking... is Charlie Crist checking his e-mails tonight?).

Long story short: I think I speak for thousands and thousands of Florida Democrats when I say that we feel satisfaction tonight — especially after these same holier-than-thou Republicans went so viciously after our President and impeached him for a personal, consensual, adult relationship.

Hey, everybody — listen, now — OUR guy had a fling with somebody who was OVER 21 and FEMALE... what do you right-wing Christian maniacs have to say about YOUR guy, who solicited 16-YEAR-OLD BOYS... while he was the leader on missing and exploited children???? Please!

So tonight, I am happy, I am thrilled. A district which two days ago the Republicans could not lose may have just turned into a seat that they cannot win. And it's just the latest example of the terrible luck that these equally terrible people who have pretended to run our country for the last six years have suffered.

Folks — enough is enough. Let's go to the polls on Nov. 7 — let's take our country back!

Has anybody corrected the poster named Tim yet? "Advise & Consent" is definitely the correct film reference. The military-coup movie that he's thinking about was "Seven Days in May." And "The Best Man" is another film altogether.

After Kerry disappears back to Washington and the kerfuffle fades, after the headlines get overtaken by other events, after the media swing their dyspeptic attention elsewhere and even the Republicans can't milk anything more out of this manufactured incident, we're left with one inescapable fact.

We're stuck in Iraq.

I love Howard, I love Rahm, I love Chuck, I love them all -- and nobody can make me grumpy today. Happy days just might be here again (at least, checks and balances are back), and at least for a few days we've wiped that smirk off the face of the Worst Person Who Ever Lived.

...that you didn't choose Keith Olbermann.

Ya know, I was just on the verge, these last couple of years, of forgiving Garrison Keillor for not speaking out against that empty suit Norm Coleman more quickly than he did -- just as I'd been thinking, the last day or so, that it was going to be a pain once again this holiday season to try to listen to my Christmas CDs or play Christmas carols on the piano when my Jewish husband wasn't around to be (loudly) annoyed by them. But now I've read this ridiculous piece and I'm angry all over again at Keillor and completely back on my husband's side, holiday-music-wise.

Garrison, try working out your pain over your messy divorce some OTHER way, okay? There must be a good therapist you can see instead of insulting my devoted husband of 20 years. "Work with it," my aunt Fanny!

Every time I read something about the evangelicals, whether it's about their vicious demonstrations outside soldiers' funerals or a Democrat wading (interestingly, I admit) into their midst, sooner or later — and in this case, right at the very end — the story always circles back to their basic problem: homophobia. I'm so sick and tired of it. They should all be heartily ashamed of themselves, and I wait eagerly (but probably futilely) for SOMEONE, Democrat, Republican, Independent or Green, to call them on it. Christians, my eye. They're a bunch of old white guys with big hang-ups about what other guys do with their dicks.

I LOVE all this Obama hoopla... AND the Hillary prognostications... AND the Edwards chatting up/listening tour... and heavens to betsy, Campaign 2008 has barely begun! Why am I so pleased? Because the Democratic presidential bench is SO DEEP. Who have the Gops got? The sell-out senator from Arizona who is clearly adopting the tactics of the folks who raped him in the 2000 primaries? A former mayor of New York whose very muddied slate of messy divorces and strong-arm police tactics was allegedly wiped clean by September 11 and whom the Republican base hates? A right-wing nutbag whom Barack Obama recently put in his place at a megachurch in Colorado? Oh, and that curiously gay-friendly Mormon guy from Massachusetts... Meanwhile, the Democrats have More Stars Than There Are in Heaven. I'm so happy about all this that I'm taking a page from Ronald Reagan's book and refusing to speak ill of any fellow D. They're all wonderful. Except, of course, Joe Lieberman.