For example, "Meet the Press," hosted by former Democrat operative Tim Russert. On a typical Sunday, he will have 3-4 Democrats, balanced by a single Republican of the ilk of Senator Chuck Hegel.

Let's check the record:

April 1: Two liberal Democrats and Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is such a loyal Republican he'd eat babies on camera if Bush needed him to. A numerical edge to the Democrats, but you can't say that conservatives weren't given their say.

March 25: Two liberal Democrats and Republican Arlen Specter. Okay, that one I'll give you.

March 18: One liberal and two moderate Democrats, and Republicans Tom DeLay and Richard Perle. Perle makes Orrin Hatch sound like a hippie; DeLay makes Perle sound like Barney the Dinosaur. A small Democratic edge in numbers, but the GOP got its heavy hitters.

March 11: Republican Zalmay Khalilzad and four press figures -- Ted Koppel and one each from NBC, Time and the Washington Post. The GOP takes questions from the working press with nary a Democrat in sight.

March 4: One sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative Democrat and Republican Lindsey Graham (normally very conservative, but with one or two high-profile defections, and thus vaguely Hagel-like) and two press figures, one from the Washington Post and one from the Wall Street Journal. An almost mirror image lineup.

February 25: A liberal Democrat, no Republican, and Maureen Dowd (disclaimed by both parties), Doris Kearns Goodwin (a scholar who, like most scholars, leans liberal) and Byron York of the right-wing National Review. Carl Levin goes through what Zalmay Khalilzad would encounter two weeks later, with a more polarized lineup.

February 18: A moderate Democrat, Republicans Chuck Hagel (definitely Chuck Hagel-like) and Tony Snow (Chuck Hagel's antithesis) and someone from NBC. A numerical and ideological edge to the GOP.

February 11: A liberal Democrat, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner -- nobody's idea of a moderate -- and David Broder (contrary to GOP belief, widely disliked by Democrats), Gwen Ifill (generally respected by Democrats), Howard Kurtz (husband of a GOP activist and utterly despised by by all decent people, and especially Democrats) and Roger Simon (of the Matt Drudge-allied Politico).

I'd say that the lineup occasionally leans too far to the left (March 25) or to the right (February 11 and 18), but is on the whole pretty well balanced. It's certainly a lot more balanced than it was in 2005, when there were a lot of "two Republicans and Joe Lieberman" lineups, but now that the Democrats have some actual power in Washington the balance of the show should move back to the center, to mirror the movement of the country as a whole.

I'm actually a socialist-leaning liberal. And a mixture of ELCA Lutheran and Moravian. Thanks for presuming to think you can figure me out, though. Your arrogance is a nice touch.

Based upon your subsequent postings, I am willing to believe this. I jumped to conclusions, and apologize.

So cminimus, your response wasn't sufficient unless it had your insult to Chloe: she's a zell miller democrat, a dino. Good job! Now you don't have to listen to anything she might have to say.

That's a rather... idiosyncratic... intepretation on your part, considering that I then spent the next two paragraphs responding to what Chloe had to say.

(And are you going to say my characterization is wrong, then? She did use a term used by conservatives to refer to Democrats in a way no liberal or moderate would. If someone said "as an Orthodox Jew, I'm very worried that virtually none of my co-religionists have accepted Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, into their hearts," would you really believe they were an Orthodox Jew?)

I'm willing to argue with an honest conservative, or an honest anybody else for that matter. Part of that means admitting what you are. I am a liberal Quaker. Chloe seems to be a conservative Catholic. You are whatever you are; you didn't say, but smart money says some variant of conservative.

Yes, yes, I am certain you are a pandagon commenter. You have the behavior down pat.

My hunch is that this is your attempt to dehumanize me in an attempt to dismiss what I'm saying, but I choose to take it as a compliment instead.