I haven't started the book Alex loaned me yet for the big Read-Off. I'm almost done with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius which started out brilliantly but is now, towards the end, a steaming pile of pretentious, unfocused vomit.

But speaking of Alex, perhaps the one or two of you who read this blog remember recently when I agreed with him that liberals can't take a joke, that one of the reasons liberalism can't compete with the din of conservative rhetoric is because they aren't putting up a strong front and instead are looking whiney.

When Michael Graham said on MSNBC, "I wanted to bludgeon [Hillary Clinton] with a tire iron", my favorite blogger Atrios decided to take him to task. My favorite line from Atrios' letter: "If Susan Sarandon had suggested that Tom DeLay should be beaten with a tire iron, there would be howls of outrage on your side."

If given the opportunity, would Michael Graham actually beat Hillary Clinton with a tire iron? Can't say -- I don't know the man. But I guess it was a joke, right?

I have to also argue that its not enirely the Democrats fault that they look that way. Just like the conservative mantra that chastises the "liberal media" made it all true, conservatives are much more adept at broadcasting any action by a Democrat as morally reprehensible. When the world is a black and white issue, like it is to conservatives, its easier for all of them to yell the same thing.

Look at the Texas Democrats -- their stunt worked, by the way -- they took a bold stand to kill a bill that is the exact kind of crap Republicans pull all the time -- the districting of Texas is none of Tom DeLay's business. The Republicans even made playing cards like were made of wanted Iraqis. So what's more reprehensible, using parlimentary procedure to kill a bill that is unfair to Texans, or to compare democratically elected officials to wanted military enemies?

Oh, but I guess I can't take a joke, right? Look who wins -- the conservatives. What the Texas Democrats did was right. But by making playing cards and parading men in Chicken suits, the Democrats are now made to look ridiculous, and when they try to explain the finer points of the bill and be forthright about their opposition to the bill, the Republicans can say, How dare you hold up the legislature? You're a terrorist!

It's not that Democrats can't take a joke. It's just that the Republicans haven't told one yet.