If, as Sen. Allen suggests, his mother taught him about tolerance, it's quite clear that he slept through the lessons. It's quite an effort to re-invent yourself. Particularly if you hail from California (or Connecticut, for that matter), and you want to pose as a God-fearing, old fashioned, "family values" having, son of the South. People re-invent themselves for many reasons all the time. But you have to wonder how much of the "new and improved" George Allen is artifice fabricated to appeal to the radicals in VA who still think they're fighting the Civil War, and think those old plantation houses don't look the same now that the slaves are gone. How else to explain the overreaction to a simple, if perhaps ill-timed question about his Jewish heritage? Judaism is a religion, that's true. But as I read the story, Ms. Fox was asking about Sen. Allen's possible Jewish ethnicity. Now he has added to his troubles. First the slur against the young man who is in fact, AMERICAN. Indian heritage, yes, but he's one of us. Then the disingenuous remarks about valuing tolerance (nevermind the noose and the Confederate flag in his office when he was governor), and now, what would seem to me an attempt to distance himself from whatever strain of Jewish heritage he might possess. Now why would someone do that? Why would someone need to do that? In any event, it's probably safe to say that George Allen's career in the Senate is over. Sane people in Virginia, just like sane people in America don't like racists. Jim Webb is not necessarily the most attractive alternative, but...like in PA, where Bob Casey is a pro-life Democrat, but people would rather see him in the Senate than another 6 years of Senator Santimonius, Jim Webb at least is with the rest of us about this stupid war. And he knows about battle, whereas George Allen is still playing with his GI Joe "action figures".

You know.

The ones you're CURRENTLY TORTURING?

Maybe they can tell you.

This sounds like Condi Rice's line about "not anticipating" that the Daily Presidential Brief about al-Qaeda flying planes into buildings actually meant FLYING PLANES INTO BUILDINGS. You want me to draw you a picture?

My God in heaven.

You've either got to be really, really stupid, or a really sadistic son of a bitch to even ask that kind of a question.

So I guess Bush would be really stupid.

And Dick Cheney would be really sadistic. On an order of magnitude that would make the Marquis de Sade cringe.

That's what this is.

Democrats and progressives can capitalize on this by saying, and it would be the truth, that while the president and his Republican cohorts in Congress are busy showing who's got the bigger balls on this, let's be honest. Not a single thing has actually been done to improve security here at home but giving us really invasive screening at airports. The larger issue is, what has actually been done to prevent another attack? And the answer is, "Not much". This is our plan. We can ACTUALLY GET THE JOB DONE. Republicans are very good at spending yours and my tax dollars and not having a hell of a lot to show for it. And for all the rhetoric about who's "soft on terror"(oxymoron), they aren't willing at the end of the day to put their money where their mouths are. So there's no real leadership here. Just a lot of tough talk and stupid ideas that they'll never fund anyway. If you want a real plan, we have one.

Wouldn't that be refreshing to hear?

Dick Durbin of IL is only acknowledging reality when he says they'll find a way to blame Democrats anyway. So what else is new? It might be a good idea if Democrats in the House and Senate got up in front of the C-SPAN cameras and started talking in tough terms about what their plan is for defeating terrorism and keeping the country safe. Enough of the shouting matches. Let's talk about ideas and solutions. THAT'S the debate we should be having. Not this "I've got big balls" BULLSHIT coming from the GOP. And if you want a sound bite, how's this? When it comes to terrorism, the GOP is all tough talk and no results.

There was a time when I thought like most of us that President Bush was just twisted and evil. Or just colossally stupid. Now I believe he is all of these and now, something much worse: completely mad. The desperation is beginning to literally show in everything he does and says. This argument for the legal right to torture detainees is tantamount to madness and arguing its legitimacy in the war on terror is madder yet. And the third (or so) of the country that still believes this nonsense about Iraq and al-Qaeda, or Iraq and WMD, or Iraq and the terror attacks has gotten desperate right along with him. Our "fearless leader" has officially gone bye-bye, folks. He was never right to begin with, obviously. But I think we're seeing a fundamental breakdown brought on by years of trying to destroy people and benefit himself at the expense of everyone else. If he loses this fight, he may have a nervous breakdown or something very like it. The same could be said for the wing of the Republican party that has allied itself with Bush and the religious right.

Now I'm no prophet, but I think a meltdown is coming.