The only result of the repeated calls for bipartisanship and comity in government is inevitable strife and extremism. Why's that? Because whenever people yearn to define themselves as "in the middle," the middle is defined by how far either side pulls, and the fact is, the right wing has pulled to the extreme right far, far harder than the left has gone its way.

Take for example this Washington Post profile of Grover Norquist. Karl Rover calls him an "impresario of the center-right." Apparently nowadays the center right wants to "get the federal government so small it can be drowned in a bathtub," equates estate taxes with the Holocaust, and compares eradicating Democrats to eradicating cancer.

Republican books always have titles like "The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military," "The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language, and Culture" (Geez, Mike, what creative names for both your books), or "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism." And these are by people who are invited on television all the time to share their views. No one on the left matches their vitriol; certainly none whose books are sold at Barnes & Noble or given shows on MSNBC do.

They've never wanted to play nice. Why does it matter?

Because they're much scummier than we ever are. Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. delayed the release of the Iranian hostages until his inauguration for his political gain. George W. Bush outed an undercover CIA operative working on WMD non-proliferation to punish her husband for presenting uncomfortable facts to the world. These are actual, concrete examples of treason.

How about just being immoral? The irony of the impeachment of Clinton is that almost all of the major players in the House who prosecuted him were adulterers. Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde admitted to having an affair, Bob Barr was an adulterer, Bob Livingston, who was the heir apparent to the Speakership, resigned from the House when it was revealed he was an adulterer, and Newt Gingrich divorced his second wife while she was in the hospital with cancer to begin a third marriage, this time to a twenty-something aide.

Why weren't these facts publicized? I don't know. But it goes to show how all-controlling yet undeserving these Republicans are.