These words were spoken, without irony, by the man who defended the murderer of an abortion doctor, pro bono, so that he could use those creds to win a primary?

This is no surprise to those of us who were brave enough

on your courage.

So the secretary of the army, the ambassador to China, and the Department of Health and Human Service liaison to community and faith-based organizations are key players in determining abortion policy? Who knew?

There are a lot of things I don't like about the Obama administration so far (and a lot more I do) but the absurd hysterics over things like this just make it harder to make legitimate critiques.

Joan Joan Joan Joan Joan Joan

Can't get your contrarian high from just The Idiot Paglia anymore?

If your addiction is getting that much stronger, it's time to talk to a professional.

"the guy who came from nothing"? His father was an attorney, his grandfather an attorney, judge and state representative for whom a a federal court building is named.

I don't know the financial circumstances of the family, but with those connections, in the 1950s/'60s, that's starting a long way from nothing.

I will join those who feel bad for the things you've had to put up with, and you handled the Coulter harridan well.

TVNewser reports, "There were more viewers watching Beck's 5pm show than watched the entire prime time (8-11pm) lineups on CNN and MSNBC."

TVNewswer also notes:

Beck was a close second to The O'Reilly Factor in Total Viewers, 3.07 million v. 3.19 million.

Almost 0.85% of the country !!

Twice as many people watched Katie Couric. Which doesn't exactly suggest a new Age of Pericles either, but I'm not ready to panic because of Glen Beck just yet.

Drudge? Is that where they came from? That explains a lot.

Also says a lot about Joan Walsh. But maybe I'm underestimating her cynicism and she's using the internet nitwit network and Paglia to drive up hits.

Same reason she wrote that review of Tom Ricks' book that said the Surge worked and Democrats now had to admit that it worked and Bush was right: It's so darling and contrarian to disagree with your liberal readers! It proves that Joan is independent not afraid to stand up to liberal group think. I bet Joe Scarborough told her she was very brave to stand up to her own allies like that. And I bet Tweety Matthews and Pat Buchanan agreed!! Trouble with her review of the Ricks book was (according to every other review I've read and the many interviews I've seen with Ricks about the book, haven't had the chance to read it myself), trouble was, Joan really didn't seem to have a clue what Ricks was saying.

Which is rather a long way of saying that Joan sometimes gets a bit too clever and "daring" for the good of her credibiilty.

As for the idiot Paglia, everything worth saying about her was said almost twenty years ago by someone a hell of a lot smarter than Camille Paglia

• There is one area in which I think Paglia and I would agree that politically correct feminism has produced a noticeable inequity. Nowadays, when a woman behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, "Poor dear, it's probably PMS." Whereas, if a man behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, "What an asshole." Let me leap to correct this unfairness by saying of Paglia, Sheesh, what an asshole. [Molly Ivins about Camille Paglia]

"Nixon's the One"? Rushin '12? These people are hilarious. But a twenty-one year old girl screaming "Are you single?" at a bloated, thrice-divorced (and apparently impotent) sexagenarian who, for reasons he has chosen not to make public, takes a suitcase full of Viagra to a third world country? That is truly sad.

I was worried about the Executive getting too much power when the author of theory of the Unitary Executive was nominated to the Supreme Court. Senator Byrd voted to end the filibuster of Samuel Alito because he was deeply concerned about the nominee's wife starting to cry during the hearings.

Priorities.

Ms Walsh-

I read your piece, and all the self-contradictions it contains ( and I don't remember the "--sort of--" qualification from when I first read this piece last night).

You're Salon's editor-in-chief, so I assume you approved the headline of your own piece? Did you think it would not be provocative? You've been with Salon a while, discussing politics on the web and on TeeVee. I assume you've noticed that Iraq is a hot button issue. Are you surprised that people are reading your review through the lens of that title? That's kinda how headlines and titles work. Especially when you make the choice to lead with your chin. As you did.

As we say in the internets, "preview is your friend". Maybe you should have re-thought your own headline before hitting "publish".

...that the title of this review has changed since it was first posted.. I think some of the text has been edited too.

But I don't see any acknowledgement of either.

To all the posters making snide remarks about red-faced Greenwald apparatchiks reading from crib sheets:

If the surge worked, why do Ricks and Petraeus both say we are, after six years, closer to the beginning of this occupation than the end?