I've been taken to task for recently using the term "repugnican" when I am repulsed by Republican tactics -- tactics such as tampering with election databases, intimidating non-Republican voters, distributing literature with incorrect election dates in neighborhoods where the electorate is less likely to vote Republican, distributing outright falsehoods as campaign literature, paying party operatives to make up lies about Democratic candidates, slandering the patriotism or service records of Democratic veterans, manipulpating legislative processes so that there is no possibility for fair votes, and perhaps even orchestrating the whole CBS guard document dispute. For Bush-era Republicans, the "ends justify the means" every time. No matter the means. And that disgusts me. It offends me as a Christian, it disgusts me as a human. But my admittedly small-minded "repugnican" designation has been compared (in private correspondence, not in the comments below) to --- are you ready for this? --- the vitriol spewed by Rush Limbaugh. The man whose utterances amount to inflammatory hate speech strung together with conjunctions. The mind, she boggles. If anyone else has taken that much offense, I deeply apologize. It was small of me, yes; Limbaughian -- never occurred to me. In the future, when I am remarking on a repugnant tactic being deployed by the Republican party, I will clearly introduce it with something like, "in another (pick one) shameful/reproachful/repugnant display of (pick one) deceit/dishonesty/treachery, the RNC..." instead of using my petty shorthand.

Good EJ Dionne column, but don't expect anything to come of it --

But a guy who is supposed to be so frank and direct turns remarkably Clintonian where the National Guard issue is concerned. "I met my requirements and was honorably discharged" is Bush's stock answer, which does old Bill proud. And am I the only person exasperated by a double standard that treated everything Bill Clinton ever did in his life ("I didn't inhale") as fair game but now insists that we shouldn't sully ourselves with any inconvenient questions about Bush's past?

I'm as weary as you are that our politics veer away from what matters -- Iraq, terrorism, health care, jobs -- and get sidetracked into personal issues manufactured by political consultants and ideological zealots. But the Bush campaign has made clear it wants this election to focus on character and leadership. If character is the issue, the president's life, past and present, matters just as much as John Kerry's.

The company he keeps --
DeLay's top PAC consultants have been indicted.

Bush's speech to the UN --
If you can't bear to listen to it, you can always read it. Seems to have taken a kinder, gentler tone since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded everyone that this war was illegal.

George Bush's version of "democracy" --
Sue Niederer attended a speech by Laura Bush and demanded the First Lady tell us when her children were going to serve; for her forthrightness, she was arrested and charged with trespassing. Charges have since been dropped.

I soooooo want to see this museum! --
The National Museum of the American Indian is open and looks spectacular.