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"Yes, the House of Representatives did a gutsy thing there, and we probably did play a hand in it. Some of the House Managers have said we did. And we put an indelible asterisk next to Clinton's name in the history books. I regret none of what I did there."

Yes indeed. My Liberal Clinton-supporting Mom last month was saying "Clinton was never impeached" and I corrected her, with an explanation of the exact process. It was a pleasure to correct her. Without House impeachment, the whole matter would have been whitewashed, to the detriment of the Office of President.

"But the whole time I felt like I was being punched in the stomach by my fellow Americans, who seemed to be saying that lying under oath was just fine. We got trounced there, Pod. Let's not sugarcoat that, either."

NO, I disagree. The American people just dont have the guts to carry through rigorous moral judgments, this is the result of our post-60s moral laxity. But WE DIDNT LOSE. (Maybe I felt different, since I knew all along that Clinton had enough Liberal Democrat enablers to survive removal.) Those unwilling to face reality lost. In the end, the stain as you point out is indelible. Our 2nd impeached President. Now, look at 2000. Consider that Gore had peace and prosperity on his side but couldnt put together a majority.

The Clinton overhang was there and was real.

"Winning elections is not about small numbers of highly-motivated people."

Actually it partly is -- DO NOT make the mistake of confusing Dean's failures with a failure of the principle of insurgent politics or activism. HERE IS THE TRUTH: If we hadnt captured Saddam *and* if Dean had a better temperment, his lead would have held and we would be discussing how "the internet changes everything". Voter decisions turned on a few critical pieces of information - they decided Dean the candidate was flawed wrt character ('too angry') and rejected him.

The fanatics are not the voters. But fanatics *WITH* an appealing message and/or candidate is the right formula for success.

The fanatics are not the voters. But fanatics *WITH* an appealing message and/or candidate is the right formula for success.

Yeah, but once everybody has fanatics, they are no longer a competitive advantage. These days, everybody has 'em. There were McGovern fanatics... Mondale fanatics... Dukakis fanatics. They are like wheels on a car. It's true that the car isn't going anywhere without them, but no one picks one car over another because one has wheels. All cars have wheels.