"why then (as Greenwald himself points out in rationalizing immediate efforts to reduce their numbers) are Democrats poised to make significant gains in both houses in November?"

Because that's how overwhelmingly despised the Republican Party is. Period.

Does anyone honestly believe the drive to get Republicans out has more to do with the Democratic policy positions or the Republican policy positions?

Americans hate George W Bush. Americans hate the GOP. That's what's driving the 2008 victories.

Barack Obama had no constituency - none - on his FISA vote. It was ludicrous and was not in any way "playing it safe to win over independents." There is NO support among Americans to give the White House more warrantless spying power. None! If there is any such support for such constitution-shredding legislation it's an extreme, far-right, minorty fringe group.

To say, "Let's get them in first, then bitch" is like a battered woman saying, "Let's get married then we'll talk about the abuse."

It can't be emphasized enough how many "Sensible People" supported shock-and-awe in 2003. How many "Sensible People" believed Saddam Hussein had a hand in 9.11. How many "Sensible People" we had in the United States that cheered on Bush's off-Broadway production of 'Hello Sailor' on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

When the majority of "Sensible People" supported Bush, that meant there were a lot of Democrats that supported Bush. Those are the folks that agree with Kilgore

"Hate to tell you this, but those Blue Dogs are more in step with the majority of this country than those calling for their heads. If we're going to win the Presidency and increase our tenuous hold on Congress, it will be with the Big Tent approach." -- sarasotahuskie

Hate you tell you this, but do you have any data to support the asinine contention that BlueDog Democrats are "more in step with the majority of this country than those calling for their heads?"

Anything at all -- other than "everybody knows"? The polling data throughout Greenwald's piece proves you wrong.

I know it's a comfy, safe, CNN/FOX/MSNBC-approved position, repeated ad naseum, to believe that Obama was "moving to the center" when he signed off on the constitution-shredding GOP FISA legislation, despite it having zero constituency -- left, middle, or right, but that didn't change the fact that it was demonstrably false to say it was "centrist."

While it's fun and easy to repeat the beltway myths, it's also utter bullshit.

It's a little over 4 months until the election. I would be very surprised if we're not about to see a level of Republican race-baiting that will make the Willie Horton "all-black-men-want-to-rape-and-kill-all-white-women" narrative seem quaint. America has moved on quite a bit since Ronald Reagan's blatant "welfare queens" & love for Philadelphia, Mississippi, racism, but obviously appealing to America's bigoted underbelly still works with a certain segment of the population. And since, as Glenn says, McCain knows he can’t run on the issues because the GOP is so hopelessly at odds with the American public on the issues, will attacking Barack Obama's manhood, no matter how 'subtle' it is, still sway a majority of Americans to vote for endless war & torture over a black man with a penis? .. I'm not sure I want that question answered so soon after it was en vogue with the American people to commit mass-murder against dark-skinned people for no reason whatsoever in Iraq.

I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but I think Glenn spotlighted this recently, when Patrick Leahy, a target of the anthrax attacks, was questioning Michael Mukasey regarding the anthrax killer and he said the following:

Mukasey: That case is under active investigation and I need to be very careful about what I say.

Leahy: We won't go any further. As I say, I feel somewhat reluctant because I was one of the targets. But I gotta say, what families of the people who died went through, what families of the people who were crippled went throug, even what my family went through. A lot of people are concerned and I won't say more because we are in open session but I think you and I probably should have a private talk about this sometime.

Mukasey: That's fine.

If Leahy has information and/or knows who the anthrax killer is, and ABC has information on who the anthrax killer is, and clearly the Bush administration has information on the anthrax killer, why exactly are the American people left in the dark about one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in US history?

Amazing work, Glenn! I have seen no other examination of Jean Carol Duley, and considering the enormous importance of her testimony, it speaks volumes about how uninterested in this case our media is. Arguably the greatest unsolved crime in US history, and the media just wants to put it behind us and move on.

We've become so used to a journalistic apathy in this country that even when we know we're not getting the full story, we don't expect the media (NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc.) to provide it.

Thanks again, Glenn!

"your point is weak. I heard a report on NPR over the weekend that Ivins' siblings had no kind or sympathetic words for their brother (if I remember right, one said that he was glad he was dead), so it's not just the social worker saying this guy had problems". -- csturgeo

One social worker and ostracized by family members. Well then, case solved! Ivins is a mass-murderer! Let’s not beat a dead horse.