I awoke on Nov. 3, 2004, the day after the re-election of George W. Bush, with something like a hangover - and I hadn't been drinking. I had to decide at that point whether to retreat into my very comfortable life as a tenured professor or to try to do something to change this country's ruinous course. What rankled me most, even more than the outcome of the election itself, was the widespread assumption on the part of my fellow evangelicals that it was something akin to a sin to vote for anyone other than the incumbent, a man whose policies, in my judgment and despite his protestations of faith, are morally bankrupt.

You know the pictures of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam and smiling.  Do you remember the revelation in 2003 by a British newspaper that Don Rumsfeld sat on the board of a corporation that sold light water nuclear reactors to North Korea?

So Grover Norquist's grubby little group dedicated to the death of all taxes, "Americans for Tax Reform" (ATR) has given Montana Senator Conrad Burns one if its "Hero of the Taxpayer" awards.

Republicans are awaiting the Nov. 7 election with the sense of dread felt by Gulf Coast inhabitants as a hurricane makes landfall: They know a wave is coming and pray that the levees hold.

Living on a fixed income is bad enough.  What do you do when you're on a fixed income and have a ton of debt?  It looks like we may be about to find out.

Finally when I let go, and I let God in, it was good.

[No word on how God felt about being inside Noe]

If you were an Ohio Republican, would you: (a) scream and run frantically from the state, (b) seriously consider switching to another state and/or party, or (c) deny that you had ever lived in Ohio or been a Republican?

I never see them [Democrats] explain how they could do it better. If somebody could explain how they could do it better, then I think I'd be more open to their ideas.

I've wondered for days now why so many Republicans jumped on Hastert at the start of the Foley mess.  Now I think I'm beginning to get it.

Attachment to the good habits and institutions of one's country and a modest pride in the genuine achievements of one's co-nationals is a commendable attitude, capable of forging ties and cementing community feeling. But patriotism has a strong tendency to go beyond this. The slogan, "My country, right or wrong" is palpably absurd, but the more seductive, though equally foolish, idea is that my country can actually do no wrong, or, at any rate, no serious wrong. The emotions of patriotism all too often blind us to the moral crimes and follies that "we" have committed and can again commit. When this is combined with the political advantages of populism, the mixture can be lethal. It is not only scoundrels who misuse patriotism; the foolish and opportunistic also do it.

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