* Do campaign workers in general receive background checks? Are writers for a campaign other than bloggers vetted? Should they be? As many have pointed out, if the new standard demands squeaky-clean bloggers and other writers, there are many opportunities for Democrats to shred Republican campaigns on the same basis, and we should not be shy about doing so. Personally, I’m not much interested in anyone other than candidates and their potential appointees, but I’m not a slash-and-burn kind of guy. I can learn, though…

* Edwards’s lukewarm defense of his newly hired bloggers… by one report, he fired and rehired them within hours… raises real concerns in my mind about whether any political operative with the strength to advance a presidential campaign can possibly meet Edwards’s newly discovered standards of “decency” (or whatever you want to call it). There is no political blogger, and probably no political writer of any sort, who has not ranted on something from time to time… and published the rant. If Edwards can’t deal with that, he shouldn’t be running for president. Where will he find the writers he needs, if they all have to have past records free of strong opinions?

I am very sorry Anna Nicole Smith died. But given the media’s fixation on one scandal at a time, I am glad that their focus seems to be shifting away from the non-story of Edwards’s bloggers.

Edwards has finally reacted, but he sounds more like Bess Truman, than Harry. Bess was a nice person, but we are well past nice.

So far, the only thing I’ve found especially admirable about Obama (besides his speech at the convention) is his refusal to play ball with Fox “News”.

That’s the ticket.

If you don’t respond forcibly and quickly, they have time to gather the “pack.”

This is the time for the “Pink Petulance” to spring into action. Loose the Grrrrls and let them do what made them worth hiring in the first place – write. As it stands now, they can’t even defend themselves.