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How do members of the media really feel about Dick Cheney? Mark Shields, a syndicated columnist appeared on the roundtable discussion show Inside Washington, which airs on Friday nights on local PBS powerhouse WETA. He blasted Cheney, linking the accident to his Vietnam deferments, saying: "I’m just grateful that he had his five deferments, because, my God, if he’d had gotten a platoon, he would have wiped out half his own men." Shields, who has previously connected Tom DeLay to the West Virginia coal mine tragedy, also accused the Vice President of not caring about the troops and possibly being...

For several elections, Democrats have been hurt by the widespread perception that the party consists of a confederation of interest groups to which Democratic leadership is slavishly beholden. You know the knock: Democrats are forever meeting with special interests like the Irish-Jewish Home for the Short or Transvestite Taxidermists Against the Metric System and then caving to the groups' non-negotiable demands.

I've noticed that Al Hunt replaced Mark Shields as the moderator of "Capital Gang." Does anyone know why? I doubt that this show is even watched by most Freepers. I watch it because I really like what Kate O'beirne has to say and usually Robert Novak. I generally manage to watch it a few minutes before I develop an incredible urge to up-chuck due to some gloating or sarcastic comment from the two libs. Is there some sort of rift between Hunt and Shields? Just curious.

Last night after Cheney's speech on my local public tv channel, there was a short panel discussion with Jim Lehrer, Mark Shields and some other semi-conservative guy...I don't know his name. Anyway Shields said that Miller and Cheney had lied about Kerry's UN statement. Lehrer then turned to the "conservative" guy and asked him, "Well, was it a lie?". They guy laughed nervously and said, "Well it was a stretch...but they all do it."I seem to recall that this is not a lie, but something Kerry said or wrote early in his political career. Can someone point me to the...

The morning after his address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, former President Clinton volunteered to this scripturally challenged reporter that his speech's most provocative line had been inspired by the Book of Isaiah. What Clinton spoke was truly unarguable: "During the Vietnam War, any young men -- including the current president, the vice president and me -- could have gone to Vietnam but didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background and could have avoided it, too. Instead he said, 'Send me.' " Each evening and speaker was dedicated to delivering slight variations on the convention's central theme:...

From CNN's "Capital Gang" Stephanie Herseth, Democrat congressional nominee in SD, is leading the Republican challenger, Larry Diedrich, 49-40 (Argus-Leader survey), as the campaign to select a successor to former Rep. William "Bill" Janklow, R-SD, enters its final ten days. However, Diedrich has improved his poll numbers, after campaign visits by Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, First Lady Laura Bush, and Second Lady Lynne Cheney. An issue dividing the two is abortion: Herseth opposes partial-birth abortion but would allow "exceptions," a position Republicans insist mean that she is really in support of partial-birth abortion, a procedure that the American Medical Assn....

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- On the eve of the 1984 presidential campaign -- during which the support of legalized abortion by Catholic politicians would stir a major controversy -- Cardinal Joseph Bernadine of Chicago, an opponent of abortion, cautioned Catholics against turning abortion into a single voting issue: "Our moral, political and economic responsibilities do not stop at the moment of birth. "Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless,...

<p>WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Do not think that the Bush White House is the only place in Washington with an outbreak of fibbing and self-serving deception.</p> <p>"We also recognize that members of our party have deeply held and sometimes differing views on issues of personal conscience like abortion and capital punishment. We view this diversity as a source of strength, not a sign of weakness, and we welcome into our ranks all Americans who may hold differing positions on these and other issues. Recognizing that tolerance is a virtue, we are committed to resolving our differences in a spirit of civility, hope and mutual respect."</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Tom Friedman of The New York Times is an absolutely terrific columnist. He has won a roomful of prizes -- including a couple of Pulitzers.</p> <p>And he has earned all of them, along with the uncommon respect of his colleagues for being a reporter first and then a columnist. This week, Friedman wrote a column that made me so angry I now write to rebut it.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- A warning to my liberal friends: Reading the following paragraphs may risk elevating your blood pressure. In is this writer's view, President George W. Bush has already established himself as a transforming American political figure who is personally changing the face of the Republican Party.</p>