In my letters and postings all over the online and offline world, I notice the same thing: conservatives are always defensive and hostile these days, and they seem to fall back on the same two tactics: ad hominem attacks on us "moonbat liberals" and absurd attacks on Bill Clinton (exceeded in their non sequitur strangeness only by attacks on Ted Kennedy). Why? Because they have nothing else. They're desperate. The entire conservative movement is crumbling under the weight of incompetence and hubris and Christian Right hypocrisy and rampant corruption.

Valerie Plame's identity was common knowledge? Even if that were true (which it isn't), that's not the point. The point is, to reveal that identity to a reporter for any reason is a felony. Period. To reveal criminal acts such as illegal prisons and domestic wiretapping is the press' RESPONSIBILITY. The press (in theory, when it's not kissing the administration's ass), does not exist to support the government; it exists to hold that government accountable for its actions. Or as H.K. Mencken said, "To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

An activist press that is doing its duty should ALWAYS be skirting the edge of treason...because it is revealing things to us our government does not want us to know...because our leaders know they should not be doing them. The only people who don't get that are sad conservatives who stick their fingers in their ears, go "lah-lah-lah" and tell themselves America is still the greatest nation on earth, Bush is God's Gilligan, and everything will somehow turn out all right.

It won't. You're done. It's over.

If this whole episode proves anything, it's that we need a Fifth Estate, a whole new breed of media outlets like Salon and others who care more about aggressive journalism than their BMW payments.

Can we please have an end to this oh-so-polite, can't risk offending the president garbage in our media? Since when do we confuse respect with softball questions? You can ask hard, persistent questions and confront hypocrisy without being an a-hole on camera. And in any case, isn't it past the time when we should be worried about treating this lying, brutal, lawbreaking, spying, corrupt, greed-consumed, delusional, power-mad administration with respect?

Translation: we're going to fix this election, too

One, this is not a contract with America (nudge, wink). This is a statement by a politician. Which means it's for a purpose. It could very well be nothing more than a smart ploy to deny the GOP a piece of November campaign ammunition, to be reversed once the Dems win back a house or two ("Did I say impeachment wasn't on the table? Silly me...").

Two, the Democrats realize that there is no stronger poison for the Republican Party or the conservative movement right now than Bush. As viscerally satisfying and Constitutionally justifiable as it would be to see him driven from office in disgrace, they know there's no better way to put a stake through the heart of the GOP than to leave the idiot in the White House through 2009. Unless he grows a brain by then, his approval rating will be about 6% (Minutemen, Dominionists and Fox News employees) and congressional Republicans will be screaming for him to resign.