Susan Estrich, in a syndicated column, chides Hollywood's Laurie David for "forwarding invites" via e-mail to a "Hate Bush 12-2 Event." But wait -- days ago, Lloyd Grove declared in the New York Daily News, after doing some digging, that Laurie David wasn't the one who gave the e-mails that "Hate Bush" subject line. So why is Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign chief helping the GOP sustain this story?

Wait, there's more. The point of Estrich's column is that

The way to defeat Bush is not to advertise how much you hate him. Hard-core ideologues who hate Bush are not going to decide this election. They'll vote for the Democrat, as they do every four years, but there aren't enough of them to elect a Democrat. You need swing voters to do that. Hatred may motivate the left to contribute money, but it is hardly an effective talking point for public consumption if you want to win elections.

Hold on a second. Regardless of who called the gathering a "Hate Bush" event, no one set out to advertise hatred of Bush. My dictionary says that "advertise" means "announce publicly." A chain e-mail sent to like-minded acquaintances isn't a public announcement. "Hate Bush" -- whoever put it on the subject line -- wasn't meant to be a "talking point for public consumption."

But that's Susan Estrich these days. She bashed the L.A. Times for reporting on Arnold Schwarzenegger's groping (and later joined his transition team). Prior to that, she wrote a nasty, catty column accusing Arianna Huffington of being a bad mother. Oh, and she's a political analyst at Fox News. I assume she'll be quite useful to the GOP for the foreseeable future.