Good morning all! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend? Spring is finally upon us; the weather is nice, the flower and fauna are starting to bloom and the subtle scents of grilled meats are wafting through the air, how could you have not had a wonderful weekend? I have one quick housekeeping item before I begin with today's post. Most all of the links over in the right hand column, "5 Likes and Dislikes", have changed, so be sure and check them out! I plan on changing those from time to time when the mood strikes. Now, on to today's post.

When I first started this blog, one of my first posts dealt with the fact that I would like to raise the bar in regards to what passes for 'political discourse' these days. I stick by the words I wrote then and still believe that we should all collectively work towards breaking out of this often nasty and typically unproductive cycle of partisan politics we currently find ourselves in. With that said, some of the things I write today may, at first glance, seem to run counter to this desire. In my defense (consider this my legal disclaimer), the things I am about to write are done with more of an intent to further point out hypocrisies in the media than they are to smear the 'good names' of those individuals named. (Can we just get on with the blog already?) Yes, here we go.

I am sure many of you heard the sad news recently relating to the health of John Edwards's wife. I am also sure that many of you are aware of Mr. Edwards's decision to go on with the campaign for President in '08. To the normal person (you and I) this seems like a very tough, but also very private decision that they have made together, nothing more. To the slime ball politicos out there (Rush Limbaugh and yes, Katie Couric), this move can be seen as nothing more than either a cold and calculated political move or as evidence of a disregard or denial of the seriousness of the situation. While we have grown to expect this sort of low ball attack from the likes of Limbaugh (and Coulter, and O'Reilly, and Savage, and Beck), it is somewhat surprising coming from the likes of Couric on the (mostly) non-partisan 60 minutes program. I just think this goes to show you the consequences of other networks trying to 'outfox Fox'.

First off there is Rush who had this to say, "And, you know, most people when told a family member's been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign. Their religion is politics and the quest for the White House." That is funny for a man who, faced with back pain (not cancer, but back pain), turned to an addiction to prescription pain medicines instead of God. He also offered up this gem, "This is -- I'm telling you, this is to jump-start the campaign. This is to see if it'll jump-start the campaign." There is a special place for this man in hell.

On to Katie who interviewed the Edwards couple on 60 minutes last night and asked poignant questions such as; "Some people wonder if you are in denial.", "You're putting your work first, and your family second." and my favorite, "Some have suggested that you're capitalizing on this." Again, just as with Rush's hypocrisy, these are interesting questions coming from someone who continued to work towards advancing her career while her husband succumbed to his own battle with cancer. A couple memos to Katie: As you should know, people deal with these sorts of personal tragedies in different ways. And, please stop hiding behind the Fox News tactic of using "Some say..." , that is journalism at it's lowest in my opinion.

Might I suggest to Katie, Rush and the like, there are much more deserving candidates out there (deserving of your 'special' breed of journalism) with even more salacious stories to investigate than cancer. Why, off the top of my head I can think of quite a few dealing with Guliani alone! Let's see; he married his second cousin, he left two wives for mistresses, he got booted from the mayor's mansion and shacked up with a gay couple, he didn't attend his son's graduation, and so on. Right there, I have given you plenty of red meat to entertain you and your listeners/viewers for the next couple weeks. If you must resort to tabloid journalism, please consider practicing it on someone without terminal cancer. Please?

Thank you for reading...