If the Dems had done the smart thing and backed Hillary in her bid for the White House, Sarah Palin would still be back home banning books, firing ex in-laws, and riddling Alaskan wildlife with bullets. It's a fine hole we've dug for ourselves, isn't it? All because, as you say, Hillary's competence and political acumen were distasteful to a lot of Old Guard Beltway Insiders.

The same witch-hunters, I imagine, who resented Hillary's husband NOT for lying about his sexual trysts, but for being potent enough to stain a dress. It's penis envy, pure and simple. Or perhaps I might put a finer point on that, pun intended, and say erection envy.

I know this because I worked on Capitol Hill. I saw first-hand how our mighty lawmakers operate. And with respect to women, it isn't pretty.

Rebecca, thank you for articulating all our thoughts so well. I knew the GOP was craven and opportunistic, but I was stunned by the sheer cynicism of choosing Sarah Palin as a Presidential running mate.

The hubris that has been spoken of in this forum stems from this: Sarah truly believes that she has been selected by God to lead the American people out of their book-reading, choice-taking, animal-protecting, rape-kit-subsidizing darkness. To her, she is on a mission doing God's work. And, of course, there is nothing more dangerous or antithetical to any country than a true believer.

"People care about if there's going to be an effort to get them healthcare, and do something about energy and all that."

Who are these PEOPLE Madden's source refers to? By all accounts, I'm a person. Is he speaking for me?

When consultants are able to channel the will of "the people" they obviously despise, I'll start voting Republican.

Lieberman is flying under false colors and has been for years. YEARS. He's a disgrace to the Party. And his expulsion will send a very strong message to other renegade Democrats: united we stand, divided we fall. Tolerance is a great quality...until it becomes license.

Kick his sorry Palin-kissing ass out of Capitol Hill.

Hmmm. Isn't this the same human pustule who accepted millions of dollars from those satanic twins of mismanagement, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--and lied about it? The same bloviating jackass who is (or was) registered as a Verizon lobbyist? Isn't it great to know that he's spearheading the political and rhetorical philosophies of the McCain campaign?

Way to go!

This kind of scornful, hate-filled, anti-feminist, indeed, anti-womanist comment is hardly surprising from the man who, along with McCain, kept that poor Fundamentalist hillbilly Sarah Palin in the dark about the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan. Remember that? She read about it the next morning in the papers.

So glad they had enough faith in her judgment to confer with her on that one. But hey--she is absolutely qualified to be President. And those of us who don't see it that way are just jealous.

Joan, you've been spot-on in your predictions, so help me out here. Most polls have Obama with a significant lead. Now I read that the race is 44% (Obama) to 43% McCain. The idea of McCain in the White House makes me physically ill.

Is someone gerrymandering the statistics? Are they valid? Help.

is this:

When a woman cheats (and most of them do at some point in a long-term relationship--statistics, skewed or otherwise, bear this out), it is a far worse insult to the man than a man's cheating is to the woman.

Why?

Men cheat when the opportunity presents itself. There are sound biological reasons for this (i.e. the dissemination of his genetic material). But when a woman cheats, biologically, she is "trading up." Her perception of the new man is that he is far more alpha than the one's she's with, otherwise why hazard the risk?

And that is why men have a long-standing tradition of using the church, the law, the chastity belt, the harem keeper, and now the Fundamentalists to keep women in line. If men can control a woman's sexuality (by, let's say, encouraging a woman to predicate her worth on men's general estimation of her desirability--I'm thinking beauty pageants and Playboy here), they've won. They've literally put the pussy in plastic wrap.

And that's a fine thing, isn't it?