I love this piece. As someone who has Republican cousins whose political views I abhor, but who I love personally, having known them as little children or else as loving aunts and uncles, well, I related.

I think a few of these letters are intellectually and politically sub-standard, even by the standards of our (handful of) routinely sub-standard letter writers! We've deleted the most vicious. I want to say one thing: I'm the one who asked Julie to put in the proviso that Rush's act could be part an entertainer-provacateur persona. A lot of people are attacking that point of view as naive and it may well be; I can be naive sometimes. I shared that question with Julie and she mused on it; I didn't expect she'd be attacked for opening her mind to something even Michael Steele has suggested.

Again, I love this piece. Thanks, Julie. Thanks to those who read it with curiosity.

I've been on vacation...do I know you under another name?

OK, ComfyShoes, then I'm pretty sure you're not convinceable.

And timothyhulsey, can you point me to a better nearby school Ty'Sheoma could transfer to if she wasn't such a slacker? Is there a good nearby school that her family is simply ignoring in their quest to keep her someplace where there are leaks in classrooms, and kids and teachers wear their coats and scarves in the winter? Please share, and I'll do my best to pass it along to her family.

Really, mrfour? What do you mean by that, seriously?

Thanks as always bigguns. Good night everyone. Keep your minds open, that's the only way they work. And your hearts, too -- it really feels good once you get used to it.

Thanks, brother.

Mr. Effendi, I asked this in another thread: Do I know you under another name? I've been on vacation and I'm trying to catch up...

"Fiscal child abuse" is a serious point? A reasoned position? Come on, Aaron Bonn, you're better than that. It's inflammatory rhetoric, it's ridiculous and if it's not racist, it's racially indifferent: Mark Sanford isn't the governor of black South Carolina. He simply doesn't care, and that's clear. Jim Clybourn has hit him, on the issues, time and again. He's the governor of White South Carolina, and that's really sad in 2009.

XH, thanks for that very funny anedcote -- I still love him though! I do think he did some chart reading in his cameo this season; mostly he did a lot of staring compassionately into Susan Sarandon's eyes (she played a grandma!) Very few lines. But I loved that episode anyway. He can read my chart any time he likes.

Thanks, bbd. Steele the First, bbd is right, I think you're misreading the sarcasm of the interjection. Dave was saying he didn't want to just go through the motions of saying he'd talked to me about it, nod nod, wink wink. Believe me, we talked about it at great length. Our hearts went out to Misty Bernall, who clearly believed what she wrote. And when I used the term "right-wing stooge," I was saying what she wasn't, obviously. You can be a conservative Christian with firm beliefs who is not a right wing stooge, even to liberals. I hope that helps; I wouldn't want my editing ambiguities to get in the way of Dave's great story.

Steele the First, we might be getting somewhere (despite that Monica Crowley imagery; to each his own). I'm a Catholic, in my own way; I decided a few years ago that it's my way, since the Cardinals and Archbishops and Bishops seemed so confused about their way. So...I am certainly not stigmatizing believers, I am one, and I come from a family of them. I hold many beliefs side by side that other people think can't coexist, that's my job in life. But I'm not as easy to dismiss as the conservatives who drive by seem to think, and that's how I've survived here for so long.

Sorry, signed off too soon. And thank you Christopher 1988, that means a lot, we tangle occasionally so your compliment warms my heart.

Amity, all I can say is I am SO GLAD I'm on XH's side this year...

virtue001, I told you I didn't like your condescending nicknames, and I appreciate that you stopped with them. Can you also stop talking about orgasm? I just need a little bit less...intimacy, virt. You say you have a wife. Talk to her about that stuff.

Thanks, ojintoad, I'm about to post the video and some thoughts about it.

Thanks, Readerreader. J.C. Miller, did you read the post? I did raise the ways Obama is NOT necessarily reversing Bush-Cheney policy, but that's not even acknowledged in mainstream media. Breathe, please.

And Dana Runs, I agree with you that there's a gender bias, I've never seen anyone smirk at a man the way some of these guys smirk at me. Re: my challenging him on calling me Joanne, see my bout with Christopher Hitchens. I'm quite willing to challenge them on what they call me, I'm famous for it, but I don't want to make it a shtick. Rivlin had a certain kind of accent that I didn't want to risk making fun of. You'd be surprised how many people pronounce my name as Joanne.

His smirking at me was condescending, but I'm not sure his mispronouncing my name was. I felt like I was winning on substance; I didn't need to win on Marquess of Queensberry rules.

Thanks, VolunteerofAmerica, as strong as I think I was, I simply wasn't strong enough on that point. I'll work on that.

Again, I am so damn glad that a) I'm not married to Dick Armey and b) I am on XH's side this year. Amity may be right, it's a long year, but I'm enjoying this stretch.

XH, just imagine what the hell Rivlin would do to your name!