Bill Richardson spoke honestly and directly, as the transcript shows. The other candidates weaseled and waffled, insisting as they always do that they are so wise and great they will enjoy the best of both worlds.

If human rights didn't trump national security, then there would have been no Revolution. In the interest of protecting property and the state, the founders would have negotiated and compromised with King George, rather than declaring war on him and endangering the lives of the citizenry in order to secure their freedom.

If human rights didn't trump national security, there would have been no Civil War. Lincoln would have compromised with Southern leaders to ensure the security of the nation. Or he would have let the rogue states simply secede, as going to war over slavery and "states' rights" would not have trumped the economic and military security of the Union.

Being a history buff, I could go on and on. But I think everyone here gets it. I think everyone here knows what kind of country we'll get if we decide that our safety and security trump decency and morality.

(And go easy on Grievous Tim: the District is simply getting to him, that's all. He's seeing it all as a game, and succumbing to intellectual vacuity and moral despondency.)

John Birch is not dead.

His body is no longer cold and stiff. They've injected the decrepit flesh with Herbert West's reagent, blasted a billion volts of electricity through the bones, and now John Birch walks among us, not quite living but not quite dead, harboring a dark spirit which is able to possess ordinary citizens and rob them of their light.

John Birch is not dead. It's midnight in America. Extremism in the defense of liberty. Eternal vigilance. Etc.

John Birch is not dead.

(All hail the new flesh.)

Let the one without sin cast the first stone at Romney.

Americans are all hypocrites.

Sea kelp.

Why is believing in the "end times" any nuttier than believing in God, the virgin birth, the resurrection, or any of the generally nutty things taught by the vast majority of Christian denominations?

It's not, really: it's a little scarier, perhaps: the "end times" scenario ends up putting a lot of everyday people in hell, after all. But it's no more insane than suggesting a 33-year old man was crucified to death and then rose from the grave days later - a central teaching of all Christian churches.

This is really about which insanity you prefer: Joan Walsh and other liberals prefer a form of lunacy which is kept private. The fact is that all religious belief, by objective methods of measuring sanity and reason, is pretty much insane and irrational. Americans tend to give a broad pass to most Christians, who are no less looney than their Mormon or Evangelical kin.

I'm no Romney fan, but does it really matter to the Presidential race and national issues of 2008 what a candidate may have said in 1978?

Why the hell didn't you write something about Bush?!?!?

Yr average DemocRAT's favorite pasttime, next to Bush-bashing, is Nader-bashing.

They call themselves Democrats, and say they love Democracy, but they seek to intimidate voters in making their choices, condemning those who in 2000 chose to exercise their right through a different choice.

Yet another way the Democratic Party - its candidates and its voters - have only a linguistic difference with their Republican comrades.

Edwards couldn't remember ever tearing up on the campaign trail himself?

Not even with a wife who has cancer?

Interesting...

Shake-up in Clinton campaign: Maggie Williams comes aboard

A former White House staffer and Clinton loyalist joins the team as defeat looms in New Hampshire

By Walter Shapiro

Looks like grave-dancing was a popular pasttime before yesterday.

Keep up the good work, Joan.

I take it an actual review of Gonzo is forthcoming? If so, save us the faux-Thompson and stick to your own excellent, professional style.

I don't think a Presidential race has ever looked more like a nation of squabbling children.

The candidates bicker like teens who have to share a bedroom. Their acolytes spread malicious gossip. Party loyalists dream of a ticket that resembles a politically correct homecoming couple. The news media (Salon included) treats this as if it's a popularity contest, Biff versus Buffy, and ask us to believe their ownership by corporate conglomerates, themselves owned by military-industrial monoliths, have nothing to do with their juvenile coverage. The general voters wander from classroom to classroom, watching the clock, measuring time as the distance between recess and lunch, recess and "school's out."

I'm a seething political animal and I'm bored of this goddam election. It's just like high school, with the news more relevant or intriguing than the "anonymous" gossip page of the high school paper. HC dissed BO in the hallway! What cute lawyer was seen pending fifteen minutes on hi sharing the boys bathroom?!

I can't imagine any candidates more bland than the cardboard cutouts presented by the political parties as the cream of their crop. America must be suffering a severe political blight if these joker are our best produce.

than a privileged white woman patting herself on the back for her own racial tolerance. Walsh should just take a hiatus and work for the Clinton campaign. They could not have come up with a better whitewash of themselves.

In the 21st century, it's not racism we have to fight: it's privilege. Walsh and Clinton are both oblivious to the fact that no mater what apologism they offer up, they still hold the opinion that if it weren't for LBJ, then MLK would have failed.

White people: can't live with 'em....

Well, you know the rest.

At home, barefoot, pudgy, and working on his memoirs.

I just knew the Democratic Party would find a truly creative way to shoot itself in the foot and deprive Democratic voters with a chance to choose their nominee.

A Clinton shaded the truth?

Oh. My. God.

I am aghast. Aghast, I am.