Cafkia: "The man is positively godlike. Puppies and kittens throng to him."

...and teenage girls, too, at least until he's 60, it appears. Look for him in the midst of that sort of halter-topped huddle at any Sundown concert ;-)

Puppies and kittens throng to him.

You've got the story confused. It's that Dupree is part puppy, part kitten.

So what do you figure should be done about the deafening silence from the parties and MSM about the profiteering during this trumped-up war? What should be done about National Guardsmen being immediately pressed into service by a commander who bailed from the Guard when the federal government started requiring drug tests for pilots? What about the soldiers made to serve time for human rights abuses they were trained and ordered to perform in military prisons?

I'm not sure this country has ever needed impeachment power exercised as much as it does now. Certainly it wasn't needed when the underlying crime was a blowjob. Perhaps in 2002 when Bush first started lying about Iraq and the Democrats were too cowardly to seek out Republicans like Jimmy Duncan who might have had enough respect for the facts to see the need to remove thieves from power. Maybe in late 2003 as it became obvious to the average, informed joe that the threat posed by Iraq was tiny compared to what Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Ashcroft, Card, Rove, Libby, Feith and the rest had cooked up.

By invading, Bush made good on his sales pitch. Iraq is now a credible threat to the U.S. So is Iran.

Impeach Cheney, rescind the war powers resolution, call the Pentagon contractors who worked in the torture prisons to testify, whatever needs to be done to bring the troops home the Democrats need to start doing. Cutting the war budget will not cut it. Henry Waxman has some interesting drips hardening under the candle he is shining on military corruption.

Republicans seem to be losing even the will to retch up cheap partisan distractions. It has been years since they've been willing to address facts, and now even their limp counter-volleys are fading. They are now posing as Hillary supporters on Democrat blogs!

Soon the shame will overtake them and they will get the courage to admit torture in our overseas prisons was a disgrace on America's spirit, that a trillion dollars to invade two countries without planes, ships, hardly even tanks and horses leaves a lot of room for graft and theft, that a violent and unwise overreaction to a tragedy is exactly what terrorists hope to get from a far more powerful foe.

Soon Republicans will wake up and no longer be a roach, but again an American, and freedom of speech will liberate their tongues from all they have been unable to speak.

Questioning Plame is a start. It will be interesting to hear her speak about the damage caused by her outing, but really there are much more important matters about which we know less. If Waxman can leverage that into exposure of the WHIG, strongarming of intelligence analysts by Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the sabotage of the intelligence infrastructure the Office of Special Plans represents, it would be a great start indeed.

If, as Don Williams points out in his latest column, we fixate on the 16 words or just on Plame, we risk missing the forest for the trees.

I still think torture is the critical leverage point for Democrats. Not only does revealing the role of private contractors in management of abusive prisons expose the cronyism that has cost Americans billions under Bush and the Republican Congress, it also illustrates Rumsfeld's perverse micromanagement and the immorality of both the abuses themselves and of pinning the blame on low-level soldiers, some of whom were merely Guardsmen.