I do not obsess over what a delusional, moronic and/or hateful 20-30% of the country believe or don't believe. We are sadly burdened with their presence--especially folks like you who have to endure them up close--but so long as they can be put in their place marginalized, they can only do so much harm.

I am encouraged by the growing ranks of self-identified Democrats, who are both growing in number and becoming more politically aware and active, by both outrage at the past and present and hope for the future. The one positive outcome of the Bush years may well be to have caused this. We now outnumber the former by a decent margin. And we're smarter.

I am, though, somewhat worried, as you are, by those in the political middle, neither red nor blue, but voting for whichever side does the best job of winning them over each election cycle--if they bother to vote at all. These are the people who made Bush possible. No, he didn't win--either time in my opinion--but they allowed him to get close enough that he could cheat his way just barely over the top. They bought into the "compassionate conservative" bullshit the first time around, and the "Osama's going to come and git ya if ya vote Democrat" bullshit the second time around.

And it is these people who voted Dem last fall, in part due to their disgust with GOP corruption. All the exit polls showed this. It was Iraq, corruption and incompetence. Do you really think these people want Libby to go free, whatever lies Andrea Mitchell tells? Do you really think these people want Gonzo to remain as AG? Do you really think these people believe that BushCo are honest and decent people?

If so, why did they vote blue last fall? It took them forever to catch on, but they can now see for themselves just how high the rot goes in this administration, and how broad and deep it is. We're nowhere near impeachment yet and already 40% of the country supports it. That is an astounding figure. Just imagine what it'll be when those other shoes drop--and they will.

It remains to be seen just how aggressively and smartly Dems will go after BushCo, and what the courts will do to support or obstruct them. I am cautiously and hesitantly optimistic about both. Dems have both the desire and motivation to go after them, if not out of principle, then out of political calculation--it's a surefire winner for '08, as it was for '06, and they know that the public won't view it as a "witch hunt", but as justice persued.

Sure, the courts may present certain problems, but I'm not convinced that they're so packed with Bush cronies that they will uniformly rule in favor of BushCo. Hamdi and Hamdan proved that to me. They may allow Bush, Cheney and some others to avoid the worst, but I doubt that they'll allow all of them to get away totally clean. They are politically astute and know that the country wants justice and a housecleaning, and don't want to be saddled with the reputation of having let BushCo get away with its crimes for the rest of their careers. Vanity and the hope of future promotions will take care of that--cynicism works both ways, you know.

But I do have a problem with knee-jerk cynical pronouncements that basically state that "life's a bitch, deal with it". Such "analyses" are neither helpful nor true. They're also quite lazy and naive, because they don't account for Nixon's fall or FDR, and they tend to view our times as somehow unique in historical perspective. They are not. History is filled with regimes like Bush's--and with their eventual overthrow or downfall and ensuing progressive eras.

But if it's easier for you to see things through a glass, darkly, go right ahead. You're just playing right into their hands, because they WANT us to feel discouraged and give up.

I don't understand why it hasn't been on yet even ONCE--even late at night. Interesting. Very, very interesting. Yet they've shown Gonzo's press conference this week repeatedly, and never lack for Regnery, AEI or CPAC events to re-broadcast repeatedly. Is Brian Lamb trying to help his friends in the White House out yet again? Another Ken Tomlinson (of CPB), it seems.

Major portions of the MSM are clearly colluding with the administration here, whether willingly or out of fear of retribution and/or a shakeup in the status quo that they so clearly love.

Versailled needs to be stormed.