Thanks for explaining the new definition of "Wonky" to me. There's no one who likes learning new things than me, which makes me kind of wonky I guess, but then I'd be wonky by either of the definitions.

I guess it makes O'Hehir's use of the term even stranger. Since when did a throrough knowledge of one's subject matter become a negative? It would only be an issue when you are pushing a candidate who prides himself on knowing nothing and who claims a special talent for acting out of gut instinct.

In this light, in case I didn't make it clear, I do think it is regrettable that O'Hehir defaulted to the old phrase book in his assessment. The accent reference seemed particularly off-topic. (I grews up in Southern California where we don't have an accent; it's everyone else in the world that has an accent!).

But overall, what prompted me to write was the angry tone of many of the letters, directed against a writer who is for the most part clearly on their side. I think the protests could have been much more effective with a more civil tone, much as the one you took with me and which I appreciate. Instead, as one letter writer pointed out, the angry rebukes seem to have put him mainly on the defensive. That's human nature.

I think we all know who the real enemy is, and I'd like to see us stay focused. I am greatly concerned that in the coming months we all might turn and start eating our own.

P.S. It took me a while to make sense of your handle. Smog in Juneau? That's very depressing.

That should read: There's no one who likes learning new things MORE than me.

Boy, you read these things and read these things, and yet the typos still creep in. For a wonky wonk like me, that's very disturbing.

The weirder these things get the better as far as I'm concerned. This one was magnificently warped.

It's like watching an army of photographers following a monkey around waiting for it to shit, then capturing it all to the last detail.

You'd think there wouldn't be much of a market for such footage, but there it is. Let's even go ahead and say that the monkey has diarrhea; yes, but we've got the exclusive footage on Inside Edition!

Well, Lindsay Lohan may have a "fire crotch" - which I still can't figure out what that means, though apparently it is absolutely one of the funniest things ever said - but I think Mr. Davis is a... is a... poopy poopasaurus who wears poop pants... on his head!!!!

So ha ha ha on him, because no matter how much money is in the trust fund, it's not enough to let him take the poop pants off. From now on, whenever he goes out anywhere, everyone who sees him should point and start screaming Poop Pants Poop Pants! You got Poop Pants on your head! Then maybe he'll just stay home and think about how rich and how much better he is, but it won't be true because even stuck at home those stupid poop pants will still be there, constantly falling down over his left eye no matter how many times he pushes them up.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

It is a bitter pill to swallow, I'm sure, but your insistence that the electoral will of the people is some kind of perversion of democracy is really starting to scare me. The people who voted against you tonight told you many many times what was on their minds and in their hearts. You responded by telling them their opinion didn't matter. What other response on their part could you possibly have expected?

President Bush was wrong about Iraq. He has always been wrong about Iraq. He always will be wrong about Iraq. The people, finally, are coming to ask a long ignored question: why do we have to find a "middle ground" between a policy that is totally wrong and built on lies and a policy that is based on workable ideas and reality? You had numerous chances to address this question and you didn't; the voters can't understand why. They feel they can no longer trust you.

I'm sure at heart you are a decent man, and believed yourself to be doing the right thing. But you didn't listen to your clients, the people, and they have now told you that you no longer have their business.

You will be okay. You will draw a pension for life, an increasingly rare thing for working folks today. You will be paid enormous sums of money for your knowledge and access to the system. That's an enviable position to be in compared to the millions of people who struggle hard just to get ahead a month or two on the rent. They will likely never see the kind of money you will be paid. Unlike what millions of Americans can now say of their future, you can rest in the knowledge that no matter what happens, you will be okay. Even as the administration you have defended works to destroy social programs, your social safety net will never let you down. You will be okay. A real democrat, BTW, would have been bothered by the irony of all this and would have fought to give working folk a better shake.

Look, I know you feel cast aside and unwanted now, but you and you alone are the author of your troubles. You will be okay. Please show some class and step aside now so that the rest of us can fight this administration for some kind of future for ourselves.