The press should have spent the last few years hammering away at ludicrous hypocrisy like this - but no. I assure you that this incident will remain unreported, unremarked on by all but the likes of Glenn.

I regard the collapse of the mainstream press in recent years as a major reason why the Republican thugs have been allowed to radically remake our government.

I wish I had an answer. The Dems, in general, are too cowardly and sated with corporate money to do anything effective to help. It is entirely possible that we will never recover from this.

Democratic questioner. Will you state your name for the record please?

A. Charles Theodore Bundy.

DQ. There have been allegations that you have treated several women with less than complete courtesy.

A. There is no discourtesy with respect to the women previously identified.

DQ. We need hair and saliva samples to conduct DNA testing, testing which would be dispositive.

A. Samples are privileged; I cannot provide samples.

DQ. We have issued a search warrant to search your premises for items such as plaster of paris, since

the allegedly discourteous behavior involved a person with a fake cast, rope that might match samples

found at the discourtesy scenes, and other unpleasantness-related evidence.

A. I cannot allow searches of my premises.

Republican questioner: My colleague is attempting to smear an honest man. It is shameful politics

to accuse a patriotic American of less-than-perfect behavior.

A. Thank you, Senator, I have important work to take care of and this is all a distraction. I need

to continue reaching out to young women who feel lonely and scared and alone late at night.

And so on.

And now comes the NY Times to reinforce Bundy's - I mean Gonzalezs - serial lawbreaking by swallowing

the Gonzalez supporter spin. Even as we speak I am listening to talking heads on CNN whine about

Clinton's corruption vs. Bush's corruption, poor poor Scooter Libby, and so on.

Karl Rove and his Gingrichian predecessors, aided and abetted by billions of dollars injected into the

political system, have fatally poisoned our political system.

Unless and until we enact comprehensive reform of the political system there is little chance of significant

improvement. We will continue to have to listen to right wing lies and Democratic cowardice and euphemisms.

As long as the Dems continue to beat around the bush, rather than beat Bush, we are all just tearing out

our hair to little effect.

Note that the occupation continues; Gonzalez is still AG; Scooter's sentence is commuted; Republicans

continue to stonewall and filibuster and lie; the system is in continuing failure mode.

He is also an American, an American who is one hell of a lot better placed to do something about the Gonzalez travesty than I am. Doesn't this guy give a shit about the difference between right and wrong?

You folks from Connecticut - what is it with you?

Just saw the news.

Once again the cowardly, wimpy, craven Senate Dems have caved in and knuckled under Bush's bullying tactics. This is absolutely positively the last straw for me. You professional Dems out there might as well get little whips and just whip yourself, it would be quicker and easier.

Could you point to a single question you feel Chris Dodd actually answered? Perhaps in person with body language he made sense, but his answers in cold print are just shy of incoherent.

You asked clear questions and did not get clear answers.

It may be the case that asking modern politicians questions is an exercise in futility.

Yes, Chris Dodd did sort of answer your last question, although it took me three close readings to sort of get what he was saying.

I have to think he comes off better in person or even on tape, his transcribed answers do not make much sense. Too choppy. Incomplete sentences. Phrases just hanging as if suspended by nothing.

I would like to see Demcrats just come out and say, clearly, that Bush and Cheney are flat-out lying about FISA. They are trying to force congress to retroactively sanction almost six years of law-breaking. And that our constitutional government is in more danger from Bush than our country is from terrorists.

I guess Dodd is better than some.

Let's say Tiger Woods shoots 95 in a professional tournament. For you non-golfers, that would be by far the worst competitive round he has ever played.

If Karl Rove were Tiger's press agent, the spin the next day would be: Tiger sinks 10 foot putt on 15; sticks approach shot on 11; says "wait until next week, my swing needs a little work but things are improving."

Throw in a few insults for any reporters cheeky enough to say that Tiger plain sucked on the course and there you have the Bush/Rove/Cheney plan for success in Iraq.

Press releases. Spin. Fire generals who tell the truth and replace them with willing propagandists.

The triumph of the swill.

This one (Allawi paying a Republican lobby firm to help him depose Maliki coincident with our Republican government talking about how Maliki should be deposed) is just too easily understood to sink out of sight because of complexity.

I do hope the MSM picks up on this horrific perfidy. Is anyone home?

For Hitler, it was the Jews and the Bolsheviks who stabbed Germany in the back.

And who doesn't want to annhiliate back-stabbing traitors? Just ask Ted Nugent, who is one of the few right-wingers willing to say what the rest of them are - feeling (I almost said 'thinking').

Our political 'leaders' are clueless and they lead us around by the nose. It is important to our collective sanity that people like Juan Cole are around to clear away a little of the smokescreen through which we try to view Iraq.