Well said...but I think your expressed hope that Democrats and Republicans will work together to win this thing is a forlorn one indeed. More likely is what Dick Morris calls, this morning, a two-year Democratic campaign to win the White House behind subpoenas, investigations and sniping by use of committees and the press.

The most optimistic outcome of all this is paralysis for two years, which says a lot about the health of our political system right there. If the House doesn't have Bush impeached by July, I'll be amazed -- the Democratic contibutors (particularly the net roots lot) are howling for it.

Whether this will work or not, I beg leave to doubt. But its effects are certainly going to be dire, not least on the war effort.

It amazes me the degree to which people take American power and position utterly for granted -- we engage in these bi-annual hate fests with the complete expectation that the real world will never intrude in a way that interrupts them. 9/11, our last dose of reality, seems to have completely forgotten. It completely amazes me that there are people who (1) really don't care if we lose the war if it gets Bush; and, (2) don't think that losing the war will cause any damage whatever to interests they consider important -- much less the whole country.

Meanwhile, the Chinese march around the world, buying up every mineral right that isn't nailed down. Speaking of buying, buying all the gold I can.