Watching Chris Matthews is now no different than watching Sean Hannity interview Dick Morris. The utter loathing he exudes for Hillary Clinton is palpable.

Any "commentator" who showed equivalent, obvious hatred for Saint John McCain would be booted off the air by MSNBC, or any other "Mainstream Media".

How is it that Mr. Matthews still has a job? (Other than this is exactly what his bosses want him to say, perhaps).

If they follow past practice, we can count on the Republican "change" to be:

More Fear

More Swiftboating

More Venom

Look for the accusations to become even more blatant than the 'Hamas loves Obama" ones we are seeing now, with pictures of Democratic candidates morphing into Osama bin Laden everywhere.

The GOP will likely trot out Joe Lieberman at every opportunity as well, to show that "Loyal Americans" love the GOP.

Regarding: "As for President Bush, who dared liken a political opponent of his party to a Nazi "appeaser" while speaking in Israel, well, it's hard to conceive of how much lower he can go. "

Wait and see. We can all count, 100%, that between now and November 2008, President Bush's comments will make yesterday's speech to the Knesset look like a bi-partisian olive branch.

In fact, the degree to which George W. Bush will "Make his own reality", will eventually mean that the mainstream media will stop covering it, and his speeches will only be carried by FoxNews and the rightwing media, just to keep the Party Faithful in line for the election: Which is hte point of these speeches in the first place.

What the Sun fails to mention is that Senator Lieberman would have to have a "George H. W. Bush" style conversion from Pro-Choice to Pro-Life to get past the Religious Right.

Now "Independent Joe" has shown his ability to shift to whatever position the White House demands since 2006, but I doubt that even that much of a "change of heart" on Senator's Joe's part would satisfy James Dobson.

So I would not count on Joe for anything more than a Zell Miller speech at the convention, then fading into oblivion when the Republicans do not need him any more.

The author floats a few possible motivations for the "Senior White House Official" floating a story that president Bush and VP Cheney want to give the next president a gift of a third war before they leave office. All of them reasons for NOT launching the war.

Here is a good reason why putting that story out is a reason that the Bush Administration WILL start another war: This Administration is all about "momentum". Once set upon a course, George W. Bush never varies, regardless of facts or consequences. What better way to make sure that America is at war with Iran than to box President Bush into "going to war"?

If George w. Bush believes that to NOT start another war would make him appear to be "backing down", then he is certain to order the shooting to start. The one sure way to "force" GW to do something is to cast NOT doing it as a sign of weakness. If the NeoConservatives want to set their Iranian war in stone, their next step will be to go on Foxnews and start talking about "The First President Bush failed to deal with Iran...” any comparison to his father will bring out the Oedipus (at least the father part) in GW and guarantee a war.

A second reason, certainly not as compelling as the first, is that, since John McCain is essentially running for "George W. Bush's Third Term in Office", Senator McCain could campaign in the Fall as "The War President, Part II" if a shooting war is raging across Iran (the conquest of Iran will not be the few-week affair that Iraq was. It will be long and bloody. And the occupation will be even worse than that of Iraq.

What a fitting legacy for George W. Bush to leave his country.

It appears that Harry Ried believes that, if he is just nice enough to Joe Lieberman, he will "come around" and be nice back. After all, it has worked so well in Harry Ried's relationship with the White House, hasn't it?

Unless Joe Lieberman has a George H. W. Bush style convention-eve conversion to Pro-Life, he is not elligable for the Republican Party nomination. John McCain could, of course nominate Senator Lieberman for Secretary of State where, just like Colin Powell, he will be a figurehead who is completely ignored by the McCain White House policy making process.

Antoher McCain Barbecue?

If he invites the media, it should be good for another six months of softball questions and free passes from reporters on the campaign trail.

So, the Republican party is going to run a smear campaign against Barak obama, filled with lies, innuendo, personal invective and appeals to emotion. all the while trying to get Americans to ignore issues and reality and, instead focus on made up issues and pledges that everyone knows will never be kept ("Weekly Question Time for the President in front of Congress"? Never happen!).

What else is new? Is the Pope really Catholic? Do bears really *** in the woods? Is George w. Bush going to start another war, with Iran, before he leaves office?

If Republicans did not depend on pure hate and smears to get elected, they would not elect anyone at all.