I love your work Garrison. You always amuse me while you educate me. After reading your article and most of the posted responses, it seems to me that impeachment is not the issue. There is no doubt that W qualifies for impeachment and conviction. However, I think that W, like a boil on the rectum, is symbolic of a systemic problem. The problem is, I think, in the way that we go about electing people to this office. While most of mankinds problems are not amenable to the "silver bullet" cure, I think this one might be.

I propose that in all future elections, we the people through our elected representatives ban paid politcal advertising!! No more T.V. ads. No more radio spots. No more telephone solicitation. No more newspaper fliers. Banning T.V. ads alone would reduce the cost of a campaign by 70% to 80% (uneducated estimate). With the approach the only way that candidates could get their messages across to the voters would be through public meetings with the electorate and interviews with the fourth estate. This would prevent the "swift boating" of candidates because of the independent follow-up questions in an open forum. Such a proposal would allow talented people of lesser means a chance to run for office. It would remove the power of lobbyists and polical action committees. It almost certainly would increase the number of people in the U.S. participating in the electoral process.

Some will say this would be a violation of the right of free speech which may be true. However, in this case we would give it up freely and in a limited fashion, unlike our right to privacy which has been removed without our permission through NSA wiretapping.

Mr. Keillor continues his sniping at Bernard-Henri Levy, presumably to demonstrate how much he loves America. "A book full of arrogant stupidity" is how GK described American Vertigo, without ever naming either the book or the author. This seems odd, given the topic we are discussing.

The America I know is much closer to the freak show (Buscho & Cheniburton, anyone?) described by BHL than the Never Never Land that is Lake Wobegon. Of course, most Americans would rather drink the maple syrup at the Chatterbox Cafe than read a Frenchman's letter to his mistress (as he described America), where he says that although he loves her she has fat thighs. All of which is too bad, because like GK I can remember a time when the US was the circus and not the sideshow.

As others have already asked, after Impeachment then what? George W. Bush is not an anomaly, but the product of decades of political action. After the chimporer has been deposed, what do you do with the RedState goobers that are his fan base? This does not invalidate their creeping fascism but allows them the polite fiction that they chose the "wrong guy". Next time they might find the "right guy" and when that happens it will be due in great part to the failure of the Democratic Party, a collaboration through incompetence scenario.

I would be delighted to see buschco impeached, preferably prior to the introduction of martial law. I just don't see it happening with a Senate full of Quislings.

My parents have listened to PHC since its first days on NPR. I remember it being on when I was around 9 years old through about 14. While I usually didn't "get" many of the jokes, the fact that my parents enjoyed it so much made me like it as well. My entire mother's side of the family is Minnesota Lutheran, and I could hear the mannerism and speech of my aunts, uncles and cousins in the characters on the show. Now, in 2006, it is a show that we will turn on Saturday nights, turn off the TV, and enjoy while eating dinner, cleaning the house, etc. I can only hope that my kids are getting something out of it as well. I think they are.

Anyone who has made it this far might be asking, "what does this have to do with the article?" The answer is, nothing. While I don't agree 100% with Garrison Keillor, I want him to know how much I have valued the show and what it still means to me.

I am grateful for Garrison Keillor's article and his ability to express what's really happening. The devastation we are bringing about is horrific, unreal, and very hard to face. I wish I believed in an afterlife.

How could it be worse? Consider: "President Cheney."

Don't know if anyone is still reading letters this far down the list, but Al Franken had a wonderful fantasy in his latest book, The Truth (with Jokes). In writing a hypothetical letter to his grandchildren in 2015, he nostalgically recalls the 2008 election, where the newly minted Democrat-led Congress votes to impeach Bush just weeks before he leaves office, not for any practical reasons, but because "it was the right thing to do."

It's a wonderful fantasy, almost as good as my fantasy that Bush and Rove will come out of the closet because "they can't hide their secret love for each other any longer." Consequently, millions of conservatives' heads would explode.

There are a lot of people here getting pretty hysterical. Take a deep breath and count to 10, please. This country has survived quite a few bad presidents who made quite a few bad mistakes (including on certain beloved Democrat who brought this country to the verge of nuclear holocaust, closer than any president before or since).

Islamic terrorism has been and will continue to be a threat to our country, regardless of what GWB does. He could surrender us today, kiss Mecca (unless that is a sin; you never know) and there would still be well funded Muslim lunatics who try to kill innocent Americans. It won't all suddenly go away in January 2009.

And since when is the US president not more religious than average? It is necessary to win the presidency. Republicans have to pander to the Southern Baptists and Catholics. Democrats have to pander to African Americans and Hispanics, who are overwhelmingly religious as well. American women will still be free to abort on demand (and hopefully they will, because, apparently, it keeps the crime rate down, and who doesn't support that?)

This country will survive whatever buffoon is in the Oval Office. The average American should worry more about their own health, losing weight, saving money and working their way up the ladder. The opportunity still exists.