...or maybe just a few days

Looks like I'm back up and running.

So's Karl Rove, incidentally.

NEW YORK - Speaking in a Manhattan ballroom just a few miles north of ground zero, Karl Rove said on Wednesday night that the Democratic party did not understand the consequences of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."

Someone mentioned that these latest public comments from the ultimate insider are interesting simply because they're coming from his mouth. Apparently there's such a shitstorm going down at sixteen-hundy Penn. Avenue that Rove has to get out there and do the slander himself. He can't rely on surrogates anymore.

Let's forget for a moment all the hue and cry that happens when a Democrat says something inflammatory. Wonder if pundit panels will immediately call on Republicans in swing states to defend Rove's remarks. Don't hold your breath; the GOP knows the art of working the refs a lot better.

Case in point: it's horrible for Amnesty International or Dick Durbin to call Guantanamo Bay a gulag, but if you're a conservative columnist talking about the Canadian health care system, "gulag" is just right.

Could somebody get a copy for me of the rulebook with the two different sets of rules for (D)s and (R)s so I know in advance, please?

...incidentally, Harry Reid and the boys know the scent of blood in the water:

"I am deeply disturbed and disappointed that the Bush White House would continue to use the national tragedy of September 11th to try and divide the country. The lesson our country learned on that terrible morning is that we are strongest when we unite together, that America's power is in its common spirit of democracy and freedom.

"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign. The lesson of September 11th is not different for conservatives, liberals or moderates.  It is equally shared and was repeatedly demonstrated in the weeks and months following this tragedy as Americans of all backgrounds and their elected representatives rallied behind the victims and their families, united in our common determination to bring to justice those responsible for these terrible attacks.

I'm sure the pundits will just tut-tut that this is nothing but "red meat for the base" and that Democrats are exploiting the issue (as if we wrote Rove's remarks for him). So the rules, then: when a Democrat says something perceived to be outrageous he's an "angry Bush-hating liberal"; when a Republican does so, he's just serving up red meat for the base and liberals shouldn't exploit it.

The words "catch" and "22" leap to mind.