I stopped reading Camille because I think she is a pointless, clueless has-been, foisting tripe off on a public she thinks adores her...and still dining out on her key book, now old enough to have spawned my grandchild. (the book, I mean)

Now, she is devoting every third column to elevating ridiculous letters from readers who are clearly shills to provide her with a springboard, (having none herself) for pseudo-intellectual debate over that which shouldn't be taken seriously on any forum. I don't mean the opinions, we are all entitled to them...I mean the half-baked uninformed logic and "facts" wrapping the opinions. She has elevated it to intelligent discourse. God help us.

To Camille: it was bad enough when you were on your own. Now your Hannity-Colmes act with "readers" is over the top. I got sucked in because the headline implied that you are claiming intellectual high ground in assessing Iraq. Are you kidding? James Baker, you ain't. Stick to weighing in on Anna Nicole Smith's legacy.

I wanted to see what you had to say. I saw it, and was disappointed, for the last time, to see that reading your "column" is, and will continue to, be a waste of time. Just not for me. The only surprise for me is that you seem to be against the war...at least I think you are...it's really hard to tell with your convoluted prose. I say surprise...because that would put us on the same side of something. Actually, not so much a surprise as a shock.

What? Who goes there? George W.? No...it's the voice of Bush-yet-to-come ...if it weren't for the fact that the somnambulistic voters who got us into our present mess are finally awakening.

Just once, would one of these guys do us the honor of referring to what the PEOPLE want...and what the PEOPLE say. That's what polls are, fellas. They actually ask the PEOPLE what they think. Very un-autocratic and Republican...but still...it happens. And yes, sometimes polls can be manipulated, but not made up of whole cloth at this level. Please stop referring to polls as though they are some mythical entity...like unicorns and leprechauns, meaningful only to those saps who admit belief.

And if you have no faith in POLLS. Why don't you listen to the PEOPLE yourself.

And if your point is that what is "right" happens to be only YOUR domain...then sorry...the PEOPLE are through handing out crowns and sceptres this time around...

...so please just follow your campaign strategists and bail now, McCain, and preserve what little shred of dignity and credibility you have left. Or better still, own up to your Baghdad whitewash and get out with some respect. The Evangelicans you've climbed into bed with (and it was far more extensive than this article admits) won't help you in that department, they're too busy with some serious sinning of their own to wash away yours.

Throw off the neocons, the bible-thumpers, the corporate thugs and dive into the polls. It's where the PEOPLE are. Join us.

Are the people in Maryland dumber than the rest of us, or is this the same unscripted mess I would have gotten a couple of states over?

It's George W...."see...it's like"...Bush all over again, but with longer rambling sentences. This man can't protect us from illiteracy, much less Islamic terrorists.

We need Clinton back. Not Hillary. The other one. The articulate statesmen. Remember what that sounded like? When "off the top of his head" was better than anyone else's script. Always.

I miss intelligence. Is it ever coming back?

Bush's boys have been spending time on his "legacy" for quite a while. Traipsing through Clinton's Presidential Library opening, sneering, sulking and loudly looking for ideas for W's library. His legacy.

Now the man who brags that he partied through one of the most prestigious college educations available is spending time with "big thinkers" trying to paste a philosophical veneer over his rotting facade of a "legacy". Tragicomedy at its best.

And while his legacy continues to snowball into the biggest inexplicable waste of human life, resources, good will and reputation of any president in history, he spends his working hours worrying about whether the fish are biting, or the Rangers are losing. The lazy, indolent, half-witted, somnambulist president who has always gotten rewarded for barely showing up. Or not. This is what I expected of him.

And yet, I still find it unbelievable.

Whatever drugs Lieberman, McCain, Bush and the newest cadre of replacement mouthpiece "commanders" are taking, I want some.

I know they are handing out antidepressants like candy to our "boots on the ground" to keep them surging to death. Maybe they could make a deal with Canada or France (thank you Michael Moore) to get us ALL some cheap mind-numbing capsules and we would be marching right along with them further into that dark night.

Maybe if I had those drugs I could sleep like Bush. Maybe if I had them, I would be willing to drink the Kool-Aid Lieberman is trying to ladle into my coffee cup.

But even I can see all of the testifying, and talk-show spinning by Fred Kagan and all the rest of the surge-o-maniacs as exactly what it is....gibberish. How can they keep getting away with saying nothing while appearing to say something?

The media needs to call them on it...and I don't mean Fox...and Congress needs to ask them..."what exactly do you mean by that" when they start floating verbal crap as intelligent discourse. What "multi-faceted program" is so new and different? And what the hell is his non "linear" way?

One booted foot in front of the other, one more vehicle headed toward an IED...that's linear, until the line is interrupted by tragedy. Maybe that's what he means.