... the GOP will continue, and even ramp up, these idiotic attacks. Then we'll have a huge supply of sound bites and video we can enjoy all over again in the 2010 and 2012 elections!

The old adage is, when you're in a hole, first of all STOP DIGGING. Quite evidently, the GOP has never learned this adage.

What was it they said about the Bourbon dynasty? Wasn't it "They learn nothing, and forget nothing"? Just so -- we obviously have our American version of the Bourbons.

There's so, so much stuff out there that just doesn't pass the good, old-fashioned common sense "smell test" -- which is much like the old "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" mantra.

If it just seems completely incredible, unbelieveable and most likely untrue, then guess what, IT PROBABLY IS. It's a very good barometer of derangement that a person is inclined to believe unbelieveable things -- and pass them on to EVERYONE they know.

Sadly, I'm related to people like this. So it goes...

"The hearings are about to let out so senators can attend their weekly party lunches..."

I assume this means POLITICAL party, not any wilder and more enjoyable break-out-the-wine-women-and-song sort of event -- but inquiring minds DO want to know!

If only Dubya had taken his oath of office seriously:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

If only Cheney and members of Congress had taken their oath of office seriously:

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

If Congress DID take this oath of office seriously, we'd have had impeachment procedures so quickly, it would have made heads spin. And there's nothing preventing impeachment procedures NOW for ex-officials, as well as sitting officials. We can bar them from ever holding office again, and end their pension payments while we're at it. Even if merely symbolic, it's worth doing.

...is another person's absolutely ESSENTIAL empathy. That's confusing enough.

But know what's most confusing? How is it that Republicans can haul a New Haven firefighter into these hearings, on the clear premise that Sotomayor was insufficiently empathetic to THEIR plight in the Ricci case, and do it with a straight face?

The mind boggles, then boggles again...

This COULD be a classic satire, along the lines of Jonathan Swift, you know? Allen could may aiming high, trying to reach the soaring satire of "A Modest Proposal" and similar works.

Or not.

...for the right-wing gas bags who've been fixated on the SCANDALOUS fact that a COMEDIAN is now sitting in the U.S. Senate.

Those two words? RONALD REAGAN

OK, I lied. I have more than two words. Get OVER the fact that Franken was a comedian (as well as actor, author and radio host, among other occupations). If a second-rate actor like Reagan isn't automatically disqualified from holding public office, simply because of what he USED to do, then just shut up about Sen. Franken -- who incidentally beat an incumbent senator fair-and-square, quite a significant achievement.

Nicely sober and quite sensible item.

I do apologize for being unable to resist a cheap jab at an obvious typo in your post -- near the end you say:

"Tit-for-tit gets us nowhere, though. We must live together. We must listen to the other."

Well, maybe tit-for-tat gets us nowhere, but the other alternative you accidentally suggested just MIGHT, in quite a few situations!

Again, sorry -- don't mean to obscure the larger points you did make pretty well!

No doubt this will have LOADS of resonance with the MTV crowd.

"Maybe she has aims of becoming some kind of professional canker sore"

OMG, I about split a gut at THAT line -- so PERFECT!

Thanks for a great laugh...

Sorry to post twice in such rapid succession, but let me be the first to speculate wildly in this direction:

Maybe Palin and Mark Sanford found out that THEY are really soulmates, after working together in the Republican Governors Conference.

Heh, heh...

There's more to this story than meets the eye. Paraphrasing Bette Davis in "All About Eve" -- "Fasten your seat belts, we're in for a bumpy couple of months" while the real, full story unfolds.

Or as Matt Drudge might put it: "Palin resigns -- DEVELOPING"

Don't count your chickens before the eggs are even LAID, much less hatched.

We've had many know-nothing campaigns in the past without benefit of Joe the Plumber -- our political and media systems are fully capable of screwing up again all by themselves, thank you very much.

One should never forget, what Rush THINKS and what Rush SAYS are almost certainly vastly different. If he said he expected and wanted Franken to be seated for some perverse reason, it's certainly possible -- maybe even likely -- he did it for pure entertainment value.

Because, above all, Rush is a big fat entertainer, in addition to being an idiot.

But even so, I can't imagine in his deepest, darkest heart of hearts that Rush is happy to think of a Sen. Franken for the next 5 and a half years...the air had to turn blue after hearing of Al's final victory.

...at LONG last, Al Franken will be seated as the duly elected junior Senator from Minnesota. Wonder what Al's favorite big fat idiot, Rush Limbaugh, will say tomorrow?

Even better, I wonder what he said TODAY after hearing this news first-hand?