" ... It was love at first sight, at least from the nerdy Rove's point of view. 'Huge amounts of charisma, swagger, cowboy boots, flight jacket, wonderful smile, just charisma -- you know, wow,' he said later." These Republicans and their media worshippers like Sexually Ambiguous Matthews are ALL THE SAME ... closet-cases, authoritarian cultists, creeps of all kinds. Where is the factory that cranks them out, year after year?

Hillary is a certain loser, Tim. I hope not, but wrong gender, wrong country. Edwards-Clark, Edwards-Webb wins 40 states.

And if Michael Vick was white, heck, the Westminster Kennel Club would be honoring him for raising awareness of a breed. For God's sake ... you HAVE heard of Mark "Banished to Invisibility" McGwire, right? Bonds is an asshole; you are a Giants fan; you don't care. He is also a huge-headed steroid freak and his "record" is a sad joke. Black? Yeah. So freaking what?

I haven't even read the article and I'm excited, on account of cuz the letters are always so good. I'm sure there's all sorts of 'Democrats have vaginas' stuff in there ... I'm ready to plunge in!

I don't deny it; I agree. But there's embarrassment, and then there's destroying the country's moral standing around the world, killing tens of thousands of people and spending $500 MILLION A DAY doing it. But as long as HH can make a cheap blow-job joke, hey, no harm done, right? Those wacky Presidents are all the aame ...

If that was a reference to me, I live in a rowhouse in Upper Darby, Pa. All Democrats aren't from SF, if that was indeed your "point."

Please, Joan, retire that bullshit phrase; it was completely devalued in 2000 when tongue-cluckers said Gore wasn't, despite watching Bush stammer, blink and bable through the debates.

But this slow-motion nightmare of us nominating HRC is terrifying me.

Hillary is a certain loser, and I pray my party's early-stste primary voters realize it. Wrong gender, wrong country. And the base doesn't like her either. I hope to hell the poll numbers right now are wring, or we're looking at 4-8 more years of some ass clown like Rudy! or Fred! starting more wars and makimng more millionaires richer. WAKE UP ... STOP HER NOW!!!

What you said.

Listen to some of my fellow Democrats here and don't engage in sleaze! Leave that to the GOP! You know -- THE ONES THAT IMPEACHED CLINTON. I swear the old saw is true: liberals won't take their own side in a fight. Also, be ready for Chris Closet-Case Matthews to bare his nails defending his big strong Daddy Figure ... well, the one you'll be discussing. He has so many.

You're funny. You could write for The Onion. If you are serious, though, I'll just comment on the "blacks and whites treat 'pets' differently." Yes ... all people do. Some love them, some electrocute and hang them. If Vick escapes this somehow, I hope there are a lot of NFL linemen in the former category, like most human beings.

I do not quibble with Somerby and your statement on the coverage in 2000; it was heinous and costly. But all the coverage and all the 'Gore didn't lead' and all the rest don't change the facts: NADER GAVE US BUSH.

You ask me, "What makes you so certain the votes that Nader got in Florida would automatically have gone to Gore had Nader not run?" I say: He only needed ONE OF EVERY ONE HUNDRED. Are you saying that 1,000 out of the 100,000 would not have voted at all, or found another jackass to waste their vote on? Come on. You also ask: ":The final electoral vote tally was Bush 271, Gore 266. New Hampshire and its whopping four electoral votes are relevant how?" I say, here's how: if Gore won NH, he would have had 270, Bush 267. Pretty simple. Just admit that Nader has cost the country eight years of hell.

On Pluto.

Bad arithmetic.

Your facts are correct. However ... that closet-case egomaniac Nader got 100,000 votes in Florida. If merely ONE IN EACH THOUSAND of those hadn't had his or her head wedged up their purer-that-thou asses and voted for Gore, the eight-year nightmare we live in would have been avoided, with no need for recounts and recriminations. The fact Gore actually did get more votes is no comfort at all to me, and immeasurably less to our war dead and their families. This doesn't count New Hampshire, where Gore lost by several thousand votes that went to Nader .

Love your stuff, Tom ... but once we nominate Hillary Clinton, one of these ass clowns will be the next President. This slow-motion nightmare MUST somehow be stopped ... we can see it coming, and there's still time. She is the wrong gender in the wrong country at the wrong time. Yet she still leads the polls, and everyone is afraid to say the e-word: electability, as if mentioning the fact that a woman has no shot in 2008 America makes the mentioner a sexist, instead of a realist. Want more Alitos? More war? More relgioso nonsense? Nominate HRC and say hello to President Fred.

Yeah, we liberals hate people. Look how many wars we start for no reason other than proving our (probably lack of) dick-size, such as your President. Poor? Fuck you! Get a job! Pure liberal thought there, also.

Okay ... but humans think first and then kill each other. And I might be overstating the "thought" involved. Animals act on instinct. I gotta come down against us on that one.

Geez, Gary ... I wish I was as sanguine as you. Good luck with that one-child law, by the way. I'm not too confident that humankind's greed and folly will cease in time, if ever. Better the animals inherit the earth.