Great post, Joan. Almost nothing would be worse than a one-party country, in my mind. If the two major parties in this country end up being two factions within the Democratic Party, that sure suits me.

Right now, I say I'd give my votes to the faction that takes on the gun lobby. The rash of school, bus, bar, friend on friend killings is just nuts. In a just world, all the gun nuts would live in a community that only gun nuts could live in, ride buses that only gun nuts could ride on, visit bars tha only gun nuts could drink in. How long would that community last? (I'm fed up...sorry...there've been too many school and crazy shootings all over these days, and I found myself terrified just the other day that someone in the hall outside my office had a gun...I realized at that point how I/a lot of us suffer from collateral PTSD even though we don't own guns...)

My guess is that Joan Walsh wrote this piece hurriedly, but man, she wrote it with

passion and truth and an instinct for hitting the center of the target. Literally every

sentence is a winner.

There is a lot of waking up happening. It is not uniformly pretty. I like that Joan has the wind in her sails. The confident stride bodes well. Cut some slack where it is needed. It takes more than 100 days to fix 8 years.

Happy 100 days it is. Things sure are looking better for this country in a remarkably short time. Confidence is springing up all over the place. I certainly feel better. I had wanted Specter to do this for a long time and I am glad to see democrats embracing him. I hope we don't appear smug...that wouldn't be too good for us. Maybe Collins and Snowe can see the writing on the wall. That party is pushing out reasonable people. All that is going to be left is the crazies.

Also the republicans are completely full of shit about not being freaked out by this. Specter is pretty close to Coleman's record according to 538, and look how they are going to the mat in Minn. The only reason they aren't letting on is it is too late...Arlen didn't give them time to stop him. If they continue to push for Coleman, that cat will be out of the bag. Republicans R.I.H. and AMF.

Bet Anita Hill is just thrilled. Perhaps you could fill your readers in on just who this woman is, Joan, and exactly what Arlan Specter meant for her. I used to have a fairly good opinion of you. No longer. You seem to have traded the old brain in for a new Bot version as you work hard at enabling the 'new' Democratic party. You know, the one that's so intent on killing off what once made the Democratic party not the Republican party. So, happy 100 days, and enjoy the hell out of your new friend Arlen. He fits the new narrative to a tee.

Splendid post Joan, and I would add "Joe the Dumber" to your pantheon of GOP "leaders".

Now to the matter of why it is that the relationship of low-brow talk radio and the GOP is not a symbiotic one, but a parasitic one, with the parasite being low-brow gargoyles like the relentlessly smear-mongering Hannity, and the devoured host being the GOP.

And this is true because if 4 out of 100 people listen to Limbaugh et al., then Limbaugh etc., are heros, because a "4 share" in talk radio land is considered to be a major success. And there will always be at least 4 or 5 out of every hundred people who have the consciousness of a scarecrow, so talk radio will be fine and coarsely immoral vipers such as Hannity....AND HIS SPONSORS....will make money by corroding the civil comity and the standard of living of the rest of us.

But for the GOP it is a different story. Because The Party of Talk Radio, ie., the host to the parasitical radio scumlords, needs a lot more than 4% of the population to survive, let alone prosper. But the low-brow talk radio ghouls will, ironically, continue to stoke the dangerously inflammatory coals of intense political hatred because it makes for a "hot show"; not withstanding that by stoking the viral hate of the lovely GOP base, it has eroded that base down to its poison core by chasing any sane American out of the thickly reduction of slime in the GOP nucleus that low-brow talk radio ginned up.

So as long as the Party of Talk Radio continues to be defined by scumlords like Hannity, to depend on talk radio to populate its Palin rallies and Tea Bag cotillions, it will continue to be "purified" down to its most concentrated "base" while Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, etc.,drive to the bank....the Swiss bank.

And that, my fine GOP friends, is why you find yourselves where you are today.....stoopped in your bunker, as one by one, your former safe houses and redoubts are raided and overwhelmed by normal Americans while you crouch beside your wind up radios, aroused just as in yore, as Hannity talks shit and you wonder why it all went away.

I think it would be really great if no political party would benefit from a terrorist attack or would even want to try.

What's happenin' Hate Tex?

The ad hominem shtick is wearing thin. It doesn't make you entertaining, just inane.

Once the confetti's been cleaned up and the champagne slept off post-good-riddance-GOP-party, I'll be curious to see what new party will take its place, and what that will do to what we consider 'center'. I'm probably counting unborn chickens here, but I'm loving the thought of a national dialogue no longer bogged down in trying to defend basic reason vs. taking crazy pills. Maybe we'll actually get some healthy, stimulating opposition, the kind that sharpens wits instead of dulling them.

I won't hold my breath, but it sure is a nice thought...