Lolly pleads that the writer had neither the time nor the military background to verify the story. When I took journalism back in high school, we were told that we don't put that stuff into print. We TAKE the time. We TALK to military commanders, we VERIFY our sources. Then, when the story gets to the editor, the editor makes sure that the reporter has done that. If he lies to his editor, he is fired and his name sent to every other paper in America. The paper apologizes to the readers and the editor offers to commit hara kiri (that's an exaggeration, of course).

You cannot plead that the job was beyond the reporter. If it was, he or she should not have been a reporter.

Ron Paul is a squirrel. Like all squirrels, he's adorable and like all squirrels, he really, really has limitations. I am something of a libertarian in my liberalism but I do believe that we need a government. We need one that works, of course, and the one we have now is in Intensive Care on a respirator but we do need services performed. We don't need a government standing watch over the various orifices of our bodies with anxious care lest we use them in ways not sanctioned by the religious right but we do need a government to protect our rights against such anxious overseers.

I like Ron Paul, don't get me wrong. I just don't want to see him within the same zip code of the Presidency. He has misread the Constitution and, although he is sincere about protecting it, the aim is not to destroy the government it set up but to make it work.

That was wonderful, Mr. Shapiro. Spot on.

I am tired of the pandering to religion rather than discussing the issues that confront us. I am sickened by the campaign to seem more Biblically-centered than the next guy. Enough. Religion may provide a good basis for a moral life but it should be internalized and not worn as a badge.

I would not vote for a canddate, however well qualified (and these two are not that well qualified) if they threatened my freedom to stay out of the synagogue or to refrain from believing in God. The Constitution has been buggered enough by Bush-Cheney and it doesn't need to be buried by putting religious ardor in front of the Bill of Rights and the Sixth Amendment.

When Carla Fae Tucker was waiting execution for two brutal murders, she found God. Wonderful. I'm glad for her. Then Pat Robertson took up the cudgel for commuting her sentence. Why? Because she was cute, white, female and Christian. Would he have done the same for a big black dude on Death Row who found Allah and turned his life around? I don't think so.

I am not in favor of capital punishment but I am in favor of good judgement and Huckabee's behavior in the Dumond case doesn't show any. When you are clearly petitioned to keep a person in prison and when predictions of future violence abound, you don't give the man a pass. You let him serve out his sentence and demonstrate that he has reformed by his prison behavior. Dumond was not under a death sentence. No danger of him being wrongly executed existed.

I don't want someone as obtuse as Huckabee and as governed by religious values as my President.

This guy has such a smell of corruption that I'm surprised he's not followed by some vultures wherever he goes.

McCain may be a nice way out of the Romney-Huckleberry conflict and the horror of Giuliani and his awesome baggage. He is secular enough to appeal to those sickened by the Mormon Baptist wars and honorable enough to calm people who shudder at a Rudy candidacy.

I wouldn't count him out.

What if Musharraf is complicit? What if the assassination was a quid pro quo on behalf of As Qaeda for keeping the US ouf of Waziristan and the Northern Territories? What if it is a payback for not rounding up Islamic extremists along with the lawyers and the demonstrators? How do we deal with Musharraf if that is the case?

I think Bill Richardson is right. We should cut off all non-humanitarian aid to Musharraf until we are clear that Musharraf is not pulling another sneak play. The Times had a report about how funds designated to help the Musharraf regime deal with AQ have been "rerouted" to the people and troops on the Indian border. That doubles the powderkeg factor, doesn't it? Our taxes are being sent to a man who is playing us and has been doing so since September 12, 2001.

Those of you who watch CSI know that criminalists can tell the track of a bullet by tracing the angle back from the entry wound back to the angle of its trajectory and even the location of the gun. I think the trajectory of this one originates from Musharraf. He may not have fired it but he gave the loaded gun to someone and told the person where to shoot. My guess is that this was quid pro quo for Musharraf's protection of the Al Qaeda elements in Waziristan and the Northern Territories.

I can almost imagine the conversation. "We owe you one. What can we do for you? Really? No sweat, boss."

Karen

Either Bill Richardson or Joe Biden are the most qualified people running. I would be happy to vote for either of them or both if they ran as a ticket.

With all that preaching on the campaign trail, there's not going to be enough left for original sermons in church.

I read about Kristol's column and I damn near barfed on my keyboard.