I find it rather interesting that I always see this kind of self-examination and preaching on the liberal side of the isle, not that there is anything wrong with it. Not sure if there is nearly as much reflections and agony over restraining oneself on the other side because, well, I don't sit there. Somehow I suspect Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly do not inspire such behaviors in their fans.

Civility is a two-way street. If someone tries to shove her Republican opinions down my throat, I push back. If she respects our differences and leaves me alone, I talk about the weather. This is not really about which side they sit but mutual respect and civility. If someone cannot give respect, she does not deserve it in return.

I don't think any writer who set out to write a novel within the boundaries of "The Great American Novel" as defined by literary critics ever succeeded.

Nobody ever complains that most GANs by male writers from the past hardly contain any believable and moving portraits of women, despite the sweeping scope that is supposed to capture the entire period and society. Moby Dick is a prime example. Hahaha.

If a novel has to fit in all the narrow confines of what male critics and establishment consider as the GAN, female writers should just say "f*ck it" and write her own novels. A novel only needs to be good.

Because the very definitions of "great" and "ambitious" are male constructs? The whole industry of academic literary criticism is ruled by impotent little old men?

Why does anyone need to write a book about something so obvious? Perhaps it is too obvious, too under our nose, to be visible.

This is pretty hilarious. Male commenters plus Cary Tennis all tend to see only the environment Nazi problem but overlook the more glaring relationship problem --- obviously it does not even register with male readers that the letter writer, the wife, is shouldering too much responsibility in this marriage.

Men see nothing wrong with a wife who financially supports her husband and does all the housework.

The letter writer obviously has self-esteem issues not unlike other submissive wives.

Let me give you an example:

Greenwald wrote, "Prioritizing political allegiance to their leader was exactly the mistake the Right made for the first several years of the Bush presidency. Even Bill Kristol admitted in The New York Times: "Bush was the movement and the cause." An entire creepy cottage industry arose on the Right devoted to venerating George W. Bush."

Uh ... that is just not true and blown out of proportion.

Plus, what does that have to do with Democrats' situation now? That Democrats and "liberals" are treating BO like the Republicans were blindly loyal to GWB? Remember GWB's first term was fueled by 9/11. The fervent symbolism from politicians was merely riding on the patriotism wave among the American public. In the Republican Congress, between 2001 and 2006, who was the boss?

I don't really care whether "liberals" (whatever that means) should support or fight against the White House, but your writing today is totally in the la-la land.

Why are Republican Senators and Congressmen so united? Because they are all holding tight onto their ideals? You must be joking. That is not the reality. During the past decade and especially during the era of Tom Delay and Dick Cheney, the Republican party has built a bully system for their own members in both the House and the Senate. Read Lincoln Chaffe's book.

I'm sorry to break this to you, but not all Republican politicians are the same and not all of them believe in exactly the same thing, although it's kind of hard to see it at this moment simply because they have all be bullied and scared into unity after a decade of the Republican election machine. And the machine is still pretty efficient in scaring the moderate/centrist members of the party. Whether it is true or not I don't know, but if you were a Republican representative from the middle-of-nowhere, Alabama and all your constituents listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News, it is only natural that you would think twice about sticking your neck out and step out of the marching order.

This is the atmosphere in the Republican party. It is despicable but it works. The agenda of a small neocon power center gets carried out. Why? Because they do a better job at manipulating all aspects of local elections (from redistricting to sending out smear squad to churches) than pretty much anyone else. Don't dismiss Karl Rove. He knows how to work the system while "the idealistic left" are totally clueless, sitting their fat butts and expecting, no, demanding the voters and politicians voluntarily come and kiss their hand. How dare they not see the automatic righteousness of our way?

If you envy their unity so much, then you should precisely advocate for the power center to strong-arm, with any means necessary including threats and bullying and sabotaging their career, all the dissenters within the Democratic party. To call for liberals to make more noise and in-fighting with the more centrist blue-dog Democrats does not follow your own logic, unless you have effective means, like Rove's, to beat these blue-dog Democrats into submission.

It is ridiculous to claim that even Republicans are trying to set up GWB as the center of the Republican cause to be obeyed by everyone, and somehow the relationship between the current WH and Democratic Congress is the same thing. That's a joke. Anyone who paid a little attention to politics in the past 8 years knows that inside the Republican party it is not GWB cracking the whip and dictating the votes in Congress. Everyone, including every Republican Senator and Congressman, knows exactly who were the boss and must be obeyed, and it is certainly not GWB.

Perhaps you are sincere in your cause but I'm getting tired of the disingenuous arguments based on distorted or selectively picked factoids.