[tom h]

This guy is pathetic. Hate started long before Gingrich. Ronald Reagan was the first Republican President that elicited visceral hate from Democrats. Before that, Presidents were always viewed respectfully by the opposition. But Democrats could not believe that Reagan won, and carried Republicans into office at the same time. Why do you think that Democrats across the nation cheered when Hinckley shot him? I have two documented instances of that -- one at Columbia University, where a class of students and their professor all cheered wildly when someone breathlessly entered and (mistakenly) shouted that Reagan had been assassinated!

I also recall the Patricia Schroeder hated Reagan for years. Called him the Teflon President; called him a moron; etc.

Claiming that the hate started with Gingrich is outright wrong.

[nevergiveup]

Would the author please explain the history of the verb to "Bork"?

[Southack]

"The liberal answer is that George Bush is a craven, lazy, hypocritical nitwit."

That's not much of an answer.

"Craven" just means "Afraid" or "cowardly." Landing on an aircraft carrier and giving speeches in terrorist-hotbeds like Malaysia will hardly cause the mainstream American public to associate President bush with "cowardly."

Nor will the public at large think that Bush is lazy. He jogs for miles each day. He is disciplined and punctual. He has passed two income tax cuts, won two wars, armed pilots, killed the estate tax, eliminated the double tax on dividends, and is currently responsible for getting our ABM system built in Alaska and California. That is definitely **not** lazy. Even liberals admit that Bush is a prolific fundraiser, something that a lazy man would find exhaustive.

So like I said above, the liberals' answer is poor.

As are their chances in elections against us.

[CyberAnt]

"Newt said .. [dem party] rejects the lessons of American history, despises the values of the American people and denies the basic goodness of the American nation"

NEWT WAS TELLING THE TRUTH - and that's what they cannot stand.

[Billthedrill]

The Republicans didn't gain the majority in '94 by demonizing anybody. They won it because Gingrich and the sitting Republicans produced a brilliant political coup in the Contract With America.

Politicians can be as bad as actors when it comes to self-absorption. Every one of the clowns thinks "vote for Me" to be more attractive than "vote for these programs." And every one of them is wrong. Even a personality-boy like Clinton found, when it came to it, that programs beat personality, so he did something perfectly Clintonian - he stole the other fellows'!

Hatred and demonizing and political demagoguery are as old as humanity. Compared to the Greeks (Demosthenes) and the Romans (the Catos) and a plethora of cases in American history that called for duels, cane-beatings, and widespread bloodshed, Newt and Carville are rank amateurs.

[Drango]

For those of us of hopelessly moderate temperament,

Say what?