No doubt for socio-psychologists it was a clinical study in morbid tendencies. But whatever it was, you've got to agree it was marvelous cutthroat politics. The Right had ample opportunity to disengage and return to the boring, sober business of government, yet it fixated on gotcha politics, ideological slashing, and trying to finish off its nemesis as if captured by the spirit of Wile E. Coyote. It was, in short, wonderful entertainment for political junkies everywhere and commentators rarely had it so good. Today, peace reigns.
Congeniality threatens to detoxify what was the perfectly corrupt political atmosphere.
It's all quite depressing for the business of commentary. But politics, being a delinquent creature, will sooner than later preempt all this orderly goodness. The numbers will narrow and Bush's smirk will transform into a snarl. For the Right, malice may not be much, but it's home. Preempting calm on the Democratic side will be, as always, an utter lack of organization or any discernible team-game plan, except perhaps in the imagination of Dick Gephardt.