In the newspapers I read, the supreme court decisions that have been, effectively, the Achilles heel of the president of the senate, have been:

Still reeling a bit from Mel's post, we're now home from watching the vp debate @ Galapogos - highly recommended as a debate watching spot.

A few things.

Winking? How many times? Four times I know I shouted when it happened.

Achilles heel. She doesn't know what the term means. Achilles heel and Bush Doctrine. Funny coincidence. For me, a coincidence too: a few years back I found myself a little obsessed with the Iliad, read a number of versions of it. The Rage of Achilles (Fagels translation):

"Achilles, dear to Zeus...
you order me to explain Apollo's anger,
the distant deadly Archer? I will tell all.
But strike a pact with me, swear you will defend me
with all your heart, with words and strength of hand.
For there is a man I will enrage - I see it now -
a powerful man who lords it over all the Argives,
one the Acheans must obey... A mighty king
raging against an inferior, is too strong.
Even if he can swallow down his wrath today,
still he will nurse the burning in his chest
until, sooner or later, he sends it bursting forth.
Consider it closely, Achilles, will you save me?"

Wink.
Wink.
Sigh.
Whatever. And I've finally made it to the epilogue of Woodward's book and am free at last to move on. Damn him for making Bush seem, uh, human. Ahab, but human. Obsessed with body counts rather than diplomacy, but human. Do it if you can, drag yourself through the book. You might then feel disqualified from any further discussion re the surge - you'll have way too many facts to weigh in easily - but really, that's OK.

And something Biden said toward his closing - "I have never since that moment in my first year questioned the motive of another member of the Congress or Senate with whom I've disagreed. I've questioned their judgment." Woodward gives you everything you need for that equation.

Anyway, having made it to the end of that book this morning and feeling like I needed something engrossing on my way to Galapagos, I jumped into a bookstore & opted for Jose Saramago's Blindness. 10 pages in. Not going to be funny, I can tell already.

But back to the debate: what I wanted to say was that the single most explosive reaction from the young (we could have sired most the folks there - individually, not in total) was something, I don't even know what, Sarah P said about women's rights. Every woman in the place erupted. Plosive and abusive. Woo.

Back to you, Katie.