Well, the far right has just finished their yearly confab here in DC showcasing the likes of Ann Coulter with her usual vitriol and absurdities. The queen of hate speech let ‘er rip again by referring to presidential candidate John Edwards as “a faggot.” This was after calling Al Gore “a total fag” on Hardball (just joking, she said, before making similar non-joking charges against Bill Clinton).

The woman has to sell books after all. Coulter is famous for calling 9/11 widows “greedy,” denying global warming, and insisting we should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

Yes, she has another book to sell — but it appears that some of the presidential candidates may not be buying. Romney called her remarks “offensive” and Giuliani said there is “no place for such name calling in political debate.” Of course, she laughs all the way to the bank.

America would be better off if Ann Coulter did just zip it but, of course, the more she talks the better the Democrats do in the polls. She really is the Republican’s worst nightmare. With friends like that……

A few minutes ago my e-mail alerted me to a statement the president had just delivered to the press upon his departure from the White House. The president noted that tomorrow I’m going to Georgia and Alabama. I go down with a heavy heart. I go down knowing full well that I’ll be seeing people whose lives were turned upside down by the tornadoes.” A properly somber tone and message struck by the president of the United States during a time of sorrow after Mother Nature took the lives of several people going about their daily lives yesterday — all to end in tragedy.

When I heard there was breaking news on the cable outlet my television is tuned into, I expected the media to comment on the president’s statement. What planet am I living on? Instead, I was treated to a report by a breathless reporter in the Bahamas who said that he had never seen so many white stretch limousines as those that arrived for Anna Nicole Smith’s funeral. Are you kidding me?

I fear the cable outlets have lost a sense of perspective as to what is really important in the world anymore. I only hope they will bury their coverage of Anna Nicole Smith when she is buried later on today — there are real stories and real tragedies that will resonate with Americans more than breathless coverage of someone who has been dead for several weeks now.

The commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been fired and replaced by Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, someone who has received numerous complaints, for several years, about the conditions at the hospital and seemingly ignored them. Some of those lodging complaints were Republicans, including Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife. Even the wife of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been to Walter Reed to hear of unsatisfactory care there.

Then this week, after The Washington Post published the explosive findings about Walter Reed, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) claimed the series “is in part based on three years of work by our committee’s investigative staff.” Davis made this claim in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) who now chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Davis of course ran the committee in the GOP majority. Hearings were held in the previous Congress and at one a soldier testified — right beside Kiley — that a “dysfunctional system” results in “massive stress and mental pain causing further harm. It would be very easy to correct the situation if the command element climate supported it,” according to the Post.

Davis deserves credit for digging in to the problems at Walter Reed. But he clearly didn’t dig deep enough. If he had, Congress would have uncovered how veterans are treated at Walter Reed before The Washington Post did.

Should Gore run for president? He may be the best of them all.

He’s been against the war in Iraq since the beginning. He’s been leading the fight against global warming. He’s the star of the second-most popular documentary in history. He just won an Oscar. And he’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He’s on a roll. So why doesn’t Al Gore run for president?

That’s what a lot of Democrats are asking. And even some Republicans. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman, just wrote a column begging Al to run. Well, Joe, take it from me. That would be making a big mistake. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see Al Gore in the White House. He’d make a great president. And he deserves to be there. After all, he won the 2000 election by over a half-million votes.

But I think it’ll be a mistake for Gore to run. Because, while the media loves him now, they can’t wait to tear him apart once he becomes a politician again. Already, they’re trying to paint him as a hypocrite on global warming. Frankly, eight years later, I’d hate to see Al Gore go through that painful process again.

And why bother? Today, he’s a rock star. He’s one of the most popular people on the planet. He’s probably doing more good than he could ever do as president.

My advice? Don’t do it.

Don’t run, Al, don’t run.

Last week’s brief tiff between the Clinton and Obama campaigns and the personal attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton by Hollywood figure David Geffen might have made some of the pundits and the compulsive Clinton haters gleeful. But, in fact, by the week’s end, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on balance came out ahead and showed class — in great contrast to Mr. Geffen, who showed the opposite. Clinton had a right to respond to being called a liar and having her integrity challenged by Mr. Geffen, and she did. Her description of Mr. Geffen’s remarks as symbolizing the politics of personal destruction that most Americans have come to detest was exactly right. Read more...

Have you begun to consider that Rudy's rapid rise and McCain's moribund marathon could actually be ghosts in the primary graveyard come Halloween? That Obama could find himself preening for the VP slot, and not the one behind a President Clinton?

After this week, it isn't crazy to imagine a Gore v. Gilmore election. While Al makes the award tour, conservative Republicans who aren't dazzled by Rudy Guiliani are scrambling for a dark horse. It is now conventional political wisdom that Gore could come in late to this already hot race and throw ice on both Obama and Hillary, win the nomination and then the general election...again! Read more...

In this constant 24-hour news cycle, there’s never a dearth of news related to the race for ’08, especially when there’s a constant fresh barrage of polling data. A new survey released yesterday tells an interesting story in the latest chapter of the Republican presidential saga. Read more...

Whichever way the jury decides on whether "Scooter" Libby lied before a Grand Jury, there is one piece of business that the Bush White House — the president himself, the vice president, Karl Rove, Richard Armitage, and Mr. Libbey himself — needs done.

And that is a simple apology to Valerie Plame, the former covert CIA agent who was outed and then pushed onto reporters' radar screens by the Bush White House as a means of attacking the credibility of her husband, Amb. Charles Wilson. Read more...

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb blast outside of the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday. They said the attack was targeted at Vice President Cheney. Fortunately, the Secret Service acted quickly and moved the vice president to a bomb shelter on the base. Even though the vice president was unharmed we must not relax and think the ordeal is over. Read more...