I've never used the term "Rethuglican" or anything approximating it for exactly the reasons I stated. Thank you for your response, it was civilized and respectful, all things considered. And you are right, this is a terrible time to be in charge. But can we handle it...yes we can.

Oprah has done some very good things with women's health...even going to the extent of having Dr. Oz discuss "poop" and laying out actual intestines to look at. Creepy but healthy and informative.

However, the Suzanne Somers thing was very disturbing from several points of view. She hawks jewelery on TV, along with her books and the off related product. She got her start as a medical and fitness expert demonstrating the thighmaster in an infomercial. She is a (not very accomplished) actress and huckster (very accomplished.) She was known to have liposuction while she was touting her own fitness and body shaping programs and books. And she never mentions her cancer, trying desperately to sweep it under the rug and forget it, because it will dampen sales of her products.

Her bioidentical custom-formulated hormones are the stuff of Rodeo Drive, and the 60 supplements she lays out every day are the luxury (and unproven regamine) of the wealthy.

The show seemed amazingly inappropriate. And the consequences could be extreme. Suzanne is on a personal quest for her own fountain of youth, and banisher of the spectre of cancer. She shouldn't be given such a huge national platform to preach her scientifically challenged views. It's dangerous and irresponsible. And at the root of it is sales, sales, sales.

Oprah allowed herself to be Somer's shill.

who think it's their duty to rewrite the law.

Just shut up and fade away. And stop trying to squeeze a few more years of relevance out of your inane observations. It is SO over that people have even stopped bothering to post thousands of outraged comments on your very unnecessary and mostly unwelcome presence.

1. They will not ratchet down the rhetoric...they are unapologetic. If anything, they will try to spin this to their base and leverage it....ie: we don't condone murder, but it's apparent that real Americans (our right wing lunatics) are very concerned and afraid. Liberals,they will say, created the climate for violence by allowing our morals to slide and our government to get out of control. The more evangelical will say that in every holy war blood was shed.

2. Napolitano should NOT have backed down. She should have clarified. Right now, everybody should be booked on a show detailing exactly WHAT the report REALLY said, and the home-grown terrorist danger (real and now proven) that it talked about. Where is the left, the sane faction talking about the fact that we cannot give right-wing extremists a free pass because conservatives and evangelicals twist the facts and make it a politically incorrect attack on them?

"I like doing TV and I'm not bad at it."

You're not that good at it either, frankly. And I don't say that viciously, just objectively. Then you decided you were good enough to take on the kingpin of low blows and bullying. You did us all a disservice by providing him with the opportunity to pummel you.

During the 2004 election I appeared on the Larry Elder show as the Kerry supporting mother of a marine in Iraq, with the Bush supporting mother of a soldier for Bush. I was attacked from the start by Elder, and the producer held up a sign for other mom to "attack" me. After doing TV and radio with right wingers like Lars Larsen and others, I had confidence and techniques. It was the day of the election and I mopped the floor with Elder, his guest and his set-up audience. Our group of "military mom" surrogates had begged our handlers to get us on O'Reilly. We thought we could take him. We were cocky. We were undoubtedly wrong.

Because you can't. All the facts, all the information, all the prepping and all the techniques and cool in the world can't compete with him on his show. He tried to set up his rules by telling you to just answer his questions with a yes or no...the gotcha Perry Mason in court. Oh the shame of it..is your limp response in O'Reilly vision.

But..even if you try to get around him, to beat him at his own game...you can't. Ever. You should have known that he will yell shut up and even have security escort you out if you don't toe his line.

The last point is this. His audience isn't interested in what you have to say. Only in what he has to say. They tune in to hear his insanity, and to see him beat up people like you. It reinforces their own warped reality. All you did was show them that once again, some liberal bitch who thinks she knows it all got taken to the woodshed by their Big Daddy of moral fascism.

You shouldn't have done it. You admitted your motives were self-serving, and you were never going to convince his audience anyway. There was nothing to gain. Though not much to lose except your dignity...and one more reason for his followers to believe that Tiller got what he deserved.