Most Illinois Democrats held our noses and voted for Blagojevich in 2006 because the alternative was worse. We could either have a corrupt megalomaniac who (nominally) agreed with us on most of the issues, or we could have a corrupt megalomaniac who was a diehard Republican (Judy Barr-Topinka) and a voice like fingernails grating on a blackboard. (It was the voice, in the end, that truly decided me--I just didn't want to hear that for the next four years. Trust me, it was the lesser of two evils.)

Other than that--let's see: like Palin, Blago insists on living in his home city, rather than the state capitol (where he'd have to rub elbows with the Downstate hoi polloi)--at taxpayer expense; like Palin, Blago puts personal connections and conflicts (often corrupt) ahead of state business; like Palin, Blago plays fast and loose with taxpayer money...and he thinks he's doing a fantastic job and should be re-elected for a third term (please, God, no.)

Also, I guess you could say they're both easy on the eyes, although I stopped thinking of G-Rod as political beefcake a long time ago.

I guess we should be grateful that Blago is Catholic and not a member of some wackadoodle premillenialist cult masquerading as a legitimate Protestant denomination. But he's managed to alienate most of downstate Illinois and even large parts of his own party.

Since you're a journalist, have you considered writing an article about your experience and this problem? Maybe submitting it to Salon?

I don't mean to be flip, and I don't know if the time spent would be worthwhile, financially speaking, but it is another aspect of the same situation, and it's only going to get worse for all of us.

I think it's unfair to lambaste Shulman. If your spouse--the person with whom you've probably spent an enormous chunk of your life and with whom you expect to spend the rest--is suddenly mentally incapacitated, it's devastating, no matter how much money and time you have to throw at his care. Materially speaking, she's suffering less, but I'd hardly call her fortunate. And it will probably end up cleaning her out too, sooner or later. There's cold comfort in that, I suppose.

I'd just be worried that Obama would agree to debate Barr, then McCain would show up, and they'd both turn on Obama. That could be nasty. Or McCain might hide behind Barr and let him go on the attack.

I tend to think Obama could probably wipe the floor with either of them, but I'm just worried about how the press would play it.

If addiction to sex is anything like alcoholism, it's clear that Cheever is just a dry drunk.

If Palin were a man, "he'd" never have even been considered for the ticket

Funny, isn't it, that the people who are always screaming about tokenism as supposedly practiced by the Affirmative Action-supporting left are the ones who commit the most egregious offenses? (Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes, anyone?)

Actually, I'm hoping by now that all the PUMAs have finally realize what a filthy insult Sarah Palin's nomination has been to the dream of a woman president. That's the thing I can't get over. You know who McCain should have picked? Condoleeza Rice. I can't stand her--she checked her brain at the door when she became Bush's national security advisor--but even with all her Bush baggage she would have been--dare I say it? competent.

Look at me. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd call Condoleeza Rice competent. Then again, I never thought I'd see the day when I longed for the good old days of the Reagan administration, either. Oh, the soft bigotry of low expectations! I blame the librul education system!

As for Biden: he's the guy who's plenty smart but endearingly dorky. We all say dumb things from time to time, but in the end, people know we're good at what we do. Gee, he's just like me! And...and...you know that when he opens his mouth, um, he actually knows what he's saying.

Kay, Condi, Carly, come on over, embrace your inner feminists, and sin no more. All will be forgiven.

Uh, really? A year after that, I had a full tuition scholarship to a major landgrant university, based on my SAT scores and 3.9 GPA (calculated sans weights). This was at a time when my father was out of work for months at a time and digging out from under the disaster of a business bankruptcy foisted on him by an unscrupulous employer. Oh, and did I mention I have no Y chromosomes?

I think that's the first time I've ever typed that, and I'm ashamed to sound like the kind of prick who touts stats that have long since ceased to matter, but actually things were looking up for women in the eighties. They were heading into the sciences and engineering fields in increasing numbers, actually, even though those were (and continue to be)fields that are hostile to women.

But neither I nor Sarah Palin majored in a hard science or technical field. However, only one of us got her degree in four years, at the same university where she initially enrolled, and is not embarrassed to release her transcripts to anyone with a legitimate reason to see them.

I suspect the beauty pageant stuff had less to do with money than with a desire for visibility--she wanted to be a teevee reporter, after all.