You fail to recall that Allan Greenspan, in early 1992, an election year (totally coincidentally), hiked interest rates to slow down the economy because it was "becoming too hot."

This is the same guy that testified to Congress that Bush's tax cuts wouldn't increase the federal deficit.

In the political hagiography of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter gets blamed for a) the inflation caused by the "guns and butter" spending for the Vietnam war; and b) the price shocks of the Arab oil embargo and OPEC price hikes.

Inflation was already rampant before the Carter administration. Remember Nixon's wage and price controls and Gerald Ford's "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) buttons?

Republicans also conveniently forget the double-digit interest and unemployment rates of the Reagan years, and the huge national debt he left behind.

Are those kids being tutored while being dragged around 24/7 on the campaign trail?

Home schooled? Or perhaps they just don't need no fancy book learnin'?

I've never seen the subject addressed.

Obama is a Socialist, and those Americans who seem to have no idea about Socialism will find out real quick what Socialism really is if Obama is elected. Here's a short definition: 1% control the wealth, and make the laws, the other 99%, white and black are Economic slaves with no say so.

You're close, but a bit mixed up. America is already governed as you describe, but it's called an Oligarchy.

I only hope that Obama succeeds in instituting more socialistic programs, like national health care and a full employment policy.

I too loathe the misappropriation of "commander in chief" as a synonym for president. It's symbolic of the imperial presidency of George W. Bush, and the media's sycophantic relationship to it.

The most important early indicator of real reform in an Obama administration will be its press operation. Will it function to obfuscate and conceal, as Bush's press flacks have done, or will it actually serve to inform?

The Christianists that now dominate the Republican Party don't seem to be interested in the teachings of the titular founder of their religion. It's much more about Leviticus, the misogyny and revulsion with sex of Paul, and the apocalyptic vision of John. Jesus? Not so much -- too "liberal."

For Christianists, religion serves their right-wing political ideology -- not the other way around. Just look at the way they threw Jimmy Carter, a true practicing Christian, overboard for the shallow Hollywood Christianity of Ronald Reagan, and their adoration of the phony "Santa Claus" Christianity of George W. Bush.

It's a good thing Kristol has such good family connections. Without nepotism, Kristol's inerrant incorrectitude would have had him laughed out of the ranks of major media mavens.

Apparently, punditry must come with perks -- such as a driver. Without someone semi-lucid behind the wheel, Kristol would get lost on the way home from one of his many TV appearances and we'd never hear from him again.

Pundits and columnists are just not always that bright. Broder seems senile and someone probably needs to remind Bill Kristol to breathe.

All they need to do is give the appearance of being smart. It's an invaluable attribute. For instance, it's a quality that has carried Dick Cheney far, far beyond his actual qualifications.

The Bush regime and its defenders have been able to take advantage of two factors:

1. The egregiousness of their unethical, criminal and unconstitutional acts, and;

2. The sheer volume of their unethical, criminal and unconstitutional acts.

When listing a full accounting of the offenses of this regime, it may indeed sound like "invective" or "Bush Derangement Syndrome" to those who haven't been paying sufficient attention.

As an aside, Kerr personifies those legal theoreticians who have divorced law from the concept of justice.

The worst "F" word in use on talk radio and cable TV stands for "Fake Outrage."

For most of those hacks, it's their only product.

It would not be a Kumbaya singalong.

Of course, the Republicans leverage their power to maximize their influence, reward their friends, and punish their enemies -- you know, like an actual political party.

Bush may never get the justice he deserves. But like OJ Simpson, he will never again be accepted by "polite" society -- just religious kooks, celebrity groupies and other hanger-ons.

And as for the obviously Rove-dubbed "Prairie Chapel" Bush ranch? It'll be sold as soon as the Bushes can find suitable accomodation in Dallas (either together or apart).

The real scandal is that the those worthless scraps of paper continued to get AAA ratings from reputable companies. Like any Ponzi scheme, it finally collapsed when the insurance companies could no longer cover the losses -- and dragged the entire financial world down with it.

This lunacy, where scraps of paper (devoid of any relationship to real-world wealth or assets) assume values measured in trillions of dollars, is symptomatic of overall US economic policy, which is similarly divorced from reality.

We've let our means of actual wealth creation -- manufacturing -- whither, and have run our government on debt with compounding interest rather than taxes.

Nonsense like the "Keep Joe" blather will probably be adopted by the pretending-to-be-a-political-party Senate Democratic "leadership."

Lieberman's not even just a one-time turncoat. Have we forgetten when Holy Joe worked himself into a public lather of high moral outrage over Clinton's BJs?

When the margin of victory is within the margin of error, strange things can happen -- it's more about who controls the courts and the state secretary of state than who actually got the most votes. This must be fixed.

That said, Franken is a far better man than that slimy weasel, Norm Coleman.

Won't the new Congress have parliamentary elections that could select new leaders who can make new committee assignments which could make the lame-duck Lieberman chairmanship moot?