So? Harry Reid called a spade a spade. Pace IS incompetent; no doubt about it. He's also more interested in getting on his moral high-horse and opining about alleged gay soldiers and sailors...people who have enlisted to fight for their country...than leading and commanding.

Too bad General Pace isn't more forthcoming about the quagmire in which his troops increasingly find themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leadership is more than four or five stars on one's shoulder and a crisp piss-cutter on one's head. Pace is the consumate Presidential yes-man; he could be the male version of the musical-comedy "Oklahoma"'s Ado Annie..."just a girl who can't say no!"

Whether Dubya is simply the man who constantly ignores info that contradicts his "heart" or Pace is the man who can't bring himself to TELL the Presidunce the truth, we, the American people, are ill-served.

I've already planned a major celebration for just past noon on 21 January, 2009; I am confident that I will not be alone in celebrating the death of the Bush Presiduncy.

The photo-op pictures of George Bush, pausing to "chat" paternally with grievously-wounded young soldiers and marines in Walter Reed, are eerily reminiscent of the pictures of Adolph Hitler wandering the streets of Berlin in April, 1945, patting the cheeks of his 14-year-old German boy-soldiers. How many are/were to die for the lie?

Recently, Bush looks very old, tired, out-of-touch and mentally distant...merely shuffling from a fund-raiser to a pep-rally before the hard-core few "true-believers" to a Rose Garden speech, given half-heartedly, and all replete with trite homilies, fetid boiler-plate and gross errata.

Perhaps Mr. Bush will grace us with HIS descent into a bunker prior to January, 2009, accompanied by his pack of jackals that include Cheney and Rove. I'd submit that he can do it right now, since we already know what the "legacy" of his odious and putrid Maladministration will be.

Don't count on it, however; he wouldn't know the honorable way if it bit him on his buttocks.

Go ahead, George, make my day! Be the self-fulfilling prophecy you are! Please...pardon Scooter and the rest of his ilk who will, eventually, feel a judge's wrath. That's what we all expect that you will do. Don't go and disappoint us, now, by going and doing the right thing, ok?

Your "respect" for the rule of law is well-known: you have condoned wholesale torture, have withdrawn the centuries-old practice of habeas corpus, have foisted the egregious Patriot Act upon us and renditioned people to secret prisons across the globe without any hope of a fair trial.

Yeah. Sure. You "respect" the rule of law, all right. Pah!

As a Progressive, I've listened carefully to and pretty much dismissed most all the Republican rabble running for President. I keep listening to them, though, hoping that at least one of them will have learned from the disaster that is the Bush Maladministration; more often than not, each candidate seems to out-Dubya even Dubya.

McCain is Goldwater-lite, Romney is a puffed-up and phony blowhard in a two-thousand-dollar suit, Guiliani's shrillness and attitude have long-since worn thin and Thompson's Southern-fried folksiness masks his lack of political accumen. Ron Paul is a breath of fresh air in a dark and stinky cabal, but, is unelectable.

I am more receptive to the message(s) from the Democratic candidates because they all seem to address the issues fairly, truthfully and forthrightly that mean the most to me: the war, the environment, affordable healthcare for Americans and keeping jobs here. In varying degrees, the Democratic candidates HAVE addressed those issues...most to my satisfaction.

Obama has a freshness that I admire; the downside to that "freshness" is a lack of experience. Biden says many of the right things, but, seems like a 1980's candidate. Richardson...to my surprise...has squandered many of the opportunities he's been offered by less-than-stellar speeches and interviews. John Edwards has started to sound slightly smarmy and unctious, even though I really like him personally.

Which leaves...Hillary Clinton. I've decided to support her because I find her to be laser-direct on issues, possess a wickedly-funny sense of humor (including self-deprecating), project a power of purpose, have a keen intellect, share my concerns as noted above, have the experience that will enable her to lead from day one and will surround herself with and appoint people who are competent. After eight years of Bush's political patronage personnel, it will be refreshing to have people in an Administration who DESERVE to be there. Bill Clinton's "role" in her administration? I'd like to see him used as a "World Ambassador" for America, mending fences that Bush, Cheney, Condaleeza, et al, destroyed worldwide.

As for Hillary's VP...Barack Obama would make a fine one, gaining valuable experience for the eight years of her Presidency. Then, in 2016, I'd be proud to support his candidacy for becoming the 45th President of the United States.

Clinton/Obama in 2008 and 2012; sounds damned good to me.

Ann1960 wrote: "..I live in a very red state (Texas) and no matter what new scandal comes to light, no matter how incompentent this administration is, no matter how the Constitution is trampled--too many people here are STILL glad that "that traitor" Kerry didn't win the last presidential election. I'm dumbfounded."

Ann, don't be "dumbfounded". The obvious answer is "it's Texas!". Not to denigrate the birthplace of my father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, but, Texas has never been a bastion of sanity, imho.

Those "good ol' boys/girls" prefer to ignore truth and embrace polemics...as long as the person spewing polemics is waving the flag.

Sad. very sad.