I don't see this as brinkmanship at all. This is part of a political evolution that has been in progress since 9/11. For the first time, America feels itself under attack for being Christian. While rhetorically it's "Freedom versus Terrorism", must Americans understand it to be us embattled Christians versus vicious, irrational Muslims. Our fundamentalist president thought no further than to lash out in a new Crusade, polarizing the world as bin Laden hoped and expected he would. Not surprisingly, this has gone awry for the Bush Administration, because faith does not trump competence and reality.

So, six years later, the Republican Party has shot its wad. There are NO serious GOP candidates for president next year. Giuliani? I'm told there is video in the public domain of the guy wearing lipstick and a dress. Especially if he is the nominee, the Republicans will run third behind whomever Dobson puts out there. It doesn't matter to the evangelicals that the Right will lose in 2008; that's already been written off. They figure Republicans will flock to the new Christian Party in time to dethrone the Antichrist Hillary by 2012. This isn't a pointless Nader-like windmill-tilt. This is an effort to revolutionize American politics, and leave the First Amendment behind, once and for all.

We have dug ourselves into the beginning of a religious war, and unfortunately, there is every likelihood that we will try to resolve the problem by digging deeper.

Although you do not love my children, you nevertheless pay for their health care when we show up at the Emergency Room uninsured. Thanks, by the way.

Just a suggestion: if you just picked up the tab for some preventive care for my kids, it would be less money out of your pocket at the ER. But hey, it's your money, do it your way.

Careful, Glenn, I figure parsing horseflop from the keyboard of a political-echelon colonel is grounds these days for an invitation to a chicken-wire suite at Gitmo.

What bad luck for this guy Philbin: he screwed up badly enough to get fired, but not badly enough to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Clearly, Hughes didn't organize enough happy-talk fake news conferences to get the job done. Happily, that guy Philbin from FEMA is now available....

Dick Cheney obviously has no concept of the meaning of the words "conservative" or "republican".

While I find the Democrats' capitulation on waterboarding distasteful, that's only a sideshow. It's another bill to be passed and vetoed, and then the stench will hang even thicker on our malodorous president. Torture is the issue that got the ink at the confirmation hearings, but it's just a distraction.

The real reason Mukasey is unacceptable is that he is willing to put the presidency above the law. The Framers were quite clear that this was never to happen, and for very good reason. The Republican Party should be renamed the Autocratic Party, and people who describe themselves as conservatives should begin to call themselves "expedients" instead. The ends justify the means, in the Age Of Terror.

And why didn't anyone ask Rudy what style of necklace HE prefers?

It shouldn't be a surprise that Microsoft is willing to commit immense resources to making a product not work. You may recall ten years ago, when the monopoly trial was cranking up, that the primary purpose of hundreds or thousands of programmers in Redmond was to try to make it impossible for Windows to run without Internet Explorer, which until that time had been strictly a separate application. That whole fiasco was to provide cover for the M$ lawyers' claim that any application space they felt like monopolizing was an integral part of the OS.

On the one hand, yes, Iran is motivated by self-interest, and there should be room to talk, if we had leadership that was the least bit intelligent.

On the other hand, it strikes me as daft to assume that Iran suspended its weaponization efforts four years ago because of "international pressure". Why on earth would they have done that, but not found a way to let anyone know about it, so the sanctions could be relaxed? Almost certainly, they stopped because their enrichment program hit a snag. Now they reap a serendipitous PR benefit.

Either way, we are blessed with this (probably momentary) opportunity to avoid letting nukes get in the hands of terrorists. However, Salon (as well as the mainstream media) seem to be saying, "never mind, problem solved, it was just another Bushie fabrication all along, go back to sleep".

Ralph Nader, the dimwit who gave us George W Bush. Why anyone would listen to the first word out of his mouth is completely beyond me. Had Nader even two neurons in his head, he would understand that the kind of reform he favors can't be accomplished under the two-party system. Dividing the vote on one side automatically hands the election to the other side.

Earth to Ralph: the two-party system is a very limited form of representative democracy, and that in itself would have been a worthwhile issue for you to work on. Instead, you screwed things up for everybody that isn't a board member at Exxon/Mobil, and you accomplished nothing.

Let me try again:

1. Two-party system.

2. Dividing the vote on one side automatically hands the election to the other side.

I know that's basic arithmatic, and you and Ralph are out there doing Higher Math, but back here on Planet Earth, that's the way our electoral system operates. Changing it would be worthwhile. Ignoring it is why we have W, the Worst ever.