This piece and many others of the same excellant quality are the reason you have become my first morning read. Then I go over to TPM for some real reporting. I have just about given up on the MSM, they seem to be only talking to each other anyway.I have a dumb question to ask and I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I understand why the left is suspicious of the Clintons, but why does the Beltway Club hate them so? Why did Broder make his infamous comment about them trashing his town? The talking heads and columnists take every chance to disrespect them. An example of this was Chris Matthews stupid question during the Republican debate about the return of Bill to the White House. He didn't put any other Democrat up there for the Republicans to ridicule. Other examples are way too numerous to mention. Please anyone who answers this don't tell me what you have against the Clintons, I want to know what the MSM has against them.

I found this passage in Chris Hedges book that I feel is germaine to Glen's topic....'The New York Times in 1944 asked Vice President Henry Wallace to answer the questions: What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous are they? The Vice President's answers were published on April 9, 1944, as the war against the Axis powers and Japan was drawing to a close. He wrote:

" The really dangerous American fascist...is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to decieve the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

They claim to be superpatroits, but they would distroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in enernal subjugation." '

TO DCLAW1's point about Frank Luntz's saying that Democrats aren't good speakers...actually they are great speakers from FDR to MLK to all three Kennedy's to Obama..what their best speeches have in common is appealing to our better natures...not what the Republican wordsmiths do which is to co-opt and brand American images and symbols and words and use them to market their adgenda..ie. the flag, the Bible, freedom, libery, free speech, death tax, etc.

Joan I agree with you that Olberman was over the top in making Dems and Bush equally responsible for the war.I share with many of the other writers a deep frustration that the Dems can't all be in the Feingold mold of a statesman or that they can't read the polls and believe that the American people will back them. However that does not make them the equivelent of Bush and his outlaw administration , not by a long shot. There is also the idea of responsibility for the Iraqs who have cooperated with us and the other noncombatents whose country we have distroyed and whose lives we have ruined. It makes you want to weep. Reading the angry comments shows the great level of frustration people have but it also shows immaturity. People want instant answers and instant change. We didn't get into the mess we are in as a nation overnight and it is going to take us a long time to dig out of it, patience will be required and a willingness to work for long term change. We could start with public financing of all elections, free use of public airwaves by canidates, debates that are more than entertainment spectacles, maybe a third party could emerge from such a process. In the meantime our only hope is the Democrats, we are tettering on the edge of the cliff now another Republican would surely lead us into the abyss.

Glen......Thanks again, for helping me fight the feeling of having walked through the looking glass. The hero worship in the MSM is stupifing.

Now, they want sympathy this gang of bullies for one of their own. How classic they are, after bulling this nation and it's institutions and it's people they show what weak little boys they are, how cowardly and shameless. It almost makes one nostalgic for the flat out honest insanity of G.Gorden Liddy.

Thanks again Glen. Not only do the pundits defend Libby they continue to have people such as David Frome (Bush's former speech writer) as guests. These people have been throughly discredited, their "academic theories" have put this country in a terrible place. Why aren't they full of shame for their mistakes. I have come to the conclusion that they so distain the ordinary watcher that they don't care what we think. Their shows and guest lineups are for each other, the small club of insiders. I think we should all go on strike and refuse to watch...stick with c-span, BBC, NPR, PBS and the Daily Show They are not perfect but they are reasonable.