I'm no longer voting Democrat. The dismal and weak performance around the Alito nomination was simply pathetic. No wonder the Dems aren't trusted on security issues when they don't even have the courage to stand up for their own issues and principles. I'm not taking this opportunity to take shots at Dems while they're battered and bruises, they've done this to themselves. It's time for a progressive party that has strength and courage, and will stand their ground even in the face of overwhelming odds.

alcohol, marijuana, Ambien, whatever. chemical dependancy is chemical dependancy. poor tess. she fell in love with a junkie. her and the other 2/3rds of the western world. does the brand of the drug make a difference?

that's exactly what's wrong with the left, and it's the reason I left the Democratic party. It's all the whining lefties do about giving "red meat" to the other side. Once the right turns the "red meat" statements back on the left, the left backpedals and stumbles trying to "soften" their statements, which only gives credence to the right. The left needs to stop being so wimpy, or at least stop complaining about being relegated to the fringe because they've only marginalized themselves.

"A banana-republic quality clings to nations that fight out all their political differences in criminal courts."

When the courts, and the executive, and the legislative branches are all in [hapless] control by small men who are at the beck and call of big money, and numbers of illegal acts and violations of our Constitution are tolerated, or only grumbled about by a confused and spineless [opposition], what do you call that? For all intents and purposes, the Bush administration is just a few 'wrongly imprisoned Americans' short of a dictatorship.

So Dems may plan to base their '06 strategy on high gas prices, even while they know that higher gas prices might actually temper consumption, and a gas tax might actually spur even more conservation? When they do get around to taxing gas - which is inevitable - they'll have shot themselves in the foot [again].

We all know that this country will never ease up on consumption of any sort until the wells run dry. It will be interesting to see what kind of republic we have after that.

Talk about what they want to do. There's no reason to defend the Dems position on eavesdropping by pointing out that they are not trying to do what the right is accusing them of doing. Keep your arguments on the offensive, and stop with all the defensive BS. Really. Everyone needs to wake up to the reality that a defensive posture is weak, no matter how strong your defense is.

Glenn, you're a good writer, but the War Room posts are simply too long. As an avid reader of Salon, I visit the War Room for the "skinny" information. What's the point of the other articles and columns if I can read them all in War Room? Maybe the developers can truncate the posts or summarize them or something. Tim seems to have a good grasp on how to make a point succinctly, and efficiently. It is possible to say a lot without using a lot of words. I've been doing my part practicing speed reading, but even that's not working out so much. -Jake