.. and now I'm back in the saddle.

I just finished reading Molly Ivins and I cannot agree more. I've never understood the "liberal bias in the media", always harped by republicans. It.doesn't.exist.

For years now, the media has treated Bush with kid gloves. Never asking hard questions, and practically bowing to his every move. The democrats however, never get a pass. Kerry's screwed up joke last week is the perfect example. It was talked about for days.. days! I had to go looking around the internet to find the actual quote, because the media was not replaying it.. just talking about how he "insulted the troops".

Now I do not claim to be some genius.. I'm far from it. But the first time I listened to it, I knew he was calling Bush a moron, not the troops. Yeah, theres that liberal media again.. whoosh!

Anyway.. Molly's column from yesterday is a good one..

AUSTIN, Texas -- The sheer pleasure of getting lessons in etiquette from Karl Rove and the right-wing media passeth all understanding. Ever since 1994, the Republican Party has gone after Democrats with the frenzy of a foaming mad dog. There was the impeachment of Bill Clinton, not to mention the trashing of both Clinton and his wife -- accused of everything from selling drugs to murder -- all orchestrated by that paragon of manners, Tom DeLay.

Media Matters collected some gems of fairness. For instance, Monica Crowley with MSNBC, in the wake of John Kerry's botched program, astutely observed "how lucky we are that he was not elected president. ... The Republicans remain the grown-ups, the responsible ones on national security."

How many dead Americans has this grown-up war resulted in?

And how darling of Fox's Juan Williams, upon learning polls show the people favor Democrats on taxes, to say, "To me, that's crazy."

And how many times did Chris Matthews use the Republican talking points about Nancy Pelosi? Extremist, uncooperative, incapable, unwilling to work with the president.

So after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners.

Given Bush's record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face. Go back to the first year of the administration, when Bush double-crossed Ted Kennedy in the No Child Left Behind Act. Think about it: You've said at the outset of your administration that you need cooperation to get anything done. Then you double-cross one of the senior senators of the other party when your re-education and labor agenda is dependent on him?

These people are not only dishonest -- they're not even smart. Not that I recommend nailing them at every turn, but I wouldn't be surprised if they try to do it to Democrats. If what Republicans have been practicing is bipartisanship, West Texas just flooded.

Take a moment to go read the rest at the link I provided.. its worth a few minutes of your time. Molly Ivins is always worth a few moments of your time

And while we're at it, lets discuss departing republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee from the great state of Rhode Island.

As posted in The Washington Note:

The President's and new Speaker's comments before the press started at 1:04 pm today and concluded at 1:08 pm.

At 1:22 pm, the White House sent John Bolton's controversial nomination to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations back up to the Senate.

Luckily, Lincoln Chafee would have none of it -- suggesting that such a nomination is clearly not in the spirit of what happened electorally in this country this week. By 2:15 pm, Chafee put an end to the Bolton confirmation process by fomalizing his previous "informal" opposition to Bolton in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

My question is despite President Bush's calls for principled bipartisanship and his replacement of Donald Rumsfeld with Robert Gates, how bipartisan is continuing to push John Bolton -- whose strident pugnaciousness undermines America's interests?

This doesn't sound like the kind of confidence building step from the White House Speaker Pelosi hoped for.

Did President Bush tell the Speaker that he was sending the Bolton nomination back to the Senate? If not, wasn't that a bit rude to mug her moments after she left his office?

And what did Senator Chafee have to actually say about it?

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," Chafee said. "And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."

I promise.. this will be my only politics post for the day. I have some knitting and spinning posts to write (and pictures to take) While watching all of the elections coverage, I've been a busy little fiber addict.

Around a year ago on this day..

• Look, I'm blogging.. - 2008
• How 'bout that.. - 2007
• Busy! - 2005