In D.C., date with wife is definitely more scandalous than an affair with a staffer.

Hey Todd, welcome back home!

Seriously, he was probably all "f*ck f*ck f*ck, I have to work here another 4 years" after the 2004 election.

It's not ideological purge ... far from it.  He just needs to prove himself in a primary election against real Democratic candidates, in an increasingly Democractic state.

He should still be challenged in the PA primary, by a REAL DEMOCRAT who promises a solid Democratic CLOTURE vote.

We need real Democrats, not fake Democrats, not Blue Dog Democrats, not "moderate" Republicans.

This whole thing is devilishly funny and profoundly sad at the same time.

I'm left scratching my head at the obscene paradox and hypocrisy of their positions, but more than that-- I'm baffled by the sheer absence  of alternative, moderate voices of sensible conservatives to challenge the hardening narrative.  They must know that (a) this is not the way to regain electoral advantage, (b) this is just nuts.  In the spirit of teabagging, I ask-- don't they have the balls for the necessary intraparty civil war?  (Talk about fascism.)

Wolf Blitzer is Jewish.

It'd be really odd if he sided with the Republican nut case on this one.

SA-WEEEET!

Elsewhere in George Stephanopoulos's This Week program, the roundtable discussion featured a clueless Karl Rove being barraged by great arguments and sharp accusaions from Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stan Greenberg.

I LOVE IT.

Guys, if you haven't seen it, I suggest you go look for it on YouTube or somewhere.  It should be available, and MADE available.

I love it so much that I'll watch it again.  And again.  And again.

I'm sure that if Rahm Emanuel's team contacted the networks to press them to cover the speech live, the networks would have preempted regular programming for it.  If the White House thought that this speech should be carried live, I think they'd have done a lot to make sure of it.

I think Reid was being sensitive to Obama's call for bipartisanship.

But now that it appears the Republicans aren't dancing, Obama is shifting gears and going on a partisan offensive.  I would expect Reid to take Obama's lead, and threaten to call the bluff.

Wouldn't it be great to see a Republican filibuster?

I will only withdraw my prediction if Howard Dean becomes HHS Secretary.  Now that's a serious choice.

And by golly, your unwitty reference is so effective, you ought to take it on the road, and use it for every purpose.

Right, and your "black president in my lifetime" response is so witty.

My response stands:  Daschle's withdrawal does not do anything to advance or hinder the path towards universal healthcare.  Put it another way, a "whore" to healthcare and pharmaceutical and insurance interests is probably a bad choice for HHS Secretary; but Obama likes to say that the push for genuine reform will come from him, so whoever sits in HHS is secondary to how Obama will navigate the treacherous path to universal healthcare.

If you have an alternate opinion, now's the time to voice it.

My mistake-- I guess nothing is impossible in America, now that a black man has been elected president in your lifetime.

The reality of the political process:  Obama chooses a well-connected "whore" for insurance and pharmaceutical interests.

Shows how much commitment there is to push genuine reform.