Well, the spin of the stories on the hearings is "blame all around," not "Ashcroft blames Clinton." The commission's criticism of the FBI seems to have greater weight. Is it me, or is the commission becoming one of the few institutions in our national political life that's seen as honest and fair-minded and above the fray?

As for the press conference, I think, alas, that Bush actually might have helped himself a wee bit with swing voters; the gung ho stuff works -- though less surely would have been more. He did go on and on, didn't he? I think this seems normal to a lot of people, but I can never get past the tone of these things -- testy, exasperated contempt. And he repeats himself -- and I don't think it's just because he can't think on his feet and needs to keep returning to the same bullet points. I think he's standing there thinking, This stuff is so obvious -- why don't these idiots get it? He has absolutely no respect for anyone who disagrees with him or doubts him. He repeats himself and articulates ... every ... word -- some people talk to non-English speakers this way, as if they think non-English speakers will understand English eventually if you just ... talk ... to ... them ... like ... children. His father eventually shrugged off losing in'92, but if W. loses this year he'll never stop being bitter about it -- he'll be sure it's just because we're so ignorant.