There's a reason people hate the press.

First, I hope that my response to Rebecca's comments weren't what drove her away. Maybe she'll read this and tell me, because if they are I'll never forgive myself :(.

In any event, I spent the entire weekend wiping my hard drive and re-installing windows. My computer had been in pretty sad shape. I don't know what was wrong with it, but now it's working like a charm. Yeah for me!

I stopped watching the morning news shows on Sunday quite some time ago, largely because I got tired of the mainstream media's imbalanced coverage, irritating prejudices, and tiresome habit of inviting the same guests over and over and over. After the election, I decided to watch them again in order to have some good gloat time. I hadn't planned to watch this weekend but changed my mind when I saw that Russert was bringing on Jim Webb and John Tester. Those are two of the more interesting new Democratic Senators, so I was intrigued.

Tester strikes me as a very decent man - a "regular joe" if you will. He was being broadcast on a satellite feed from his kitchen, and reeked of 19th-century western populism. Unfortunately for Tester he was on the same time as Jim Webb. Webb was incredibly impressive. He was sober and analytical but was capable of speaking with real passion. His recent comments about the central importance of globalization and its effect on the American middle class and American security spoke directly to some of my deepest concerns. And I was really hooked when Webb said that he was going to model his career after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, my own personal political role model. Yeah, Webb looks pretty awesome.

I flipped around to watch Face the Nation, where Charlie Rangel made some interesting comments about national service. What really caught my attention was Lindsey Graham, who came out in favor of the McCain position of sending more troops to Iraq. I must say, I don't see how this position is politically tenable. It seems to me that the voters spoke very clearly about their desire to reduce our military commitments in the Middle East. When are conservatives going to realize that democracies cannot sustain foreign policies without the support of public opinion? How many wars to they have to lose?

Still, I was happy enough at the morning's progress - until I watched the end of Stephanopolous's show. I skipped the McCain interview (I'm tired of him already) but watched the roundtable portion with George, Fareed Zakaria, Robert Reich, and that pompous granny with a bow tie George Will. This gaggle of pundits were clucking about the rise of populism in the Democratic Party, particularly the emphasis on fair trade. Will sniffed that this was another term for protectionism, and that the liberal demand to include labor and environmental standards in trade agreements meant "no trade agreements at all."

The knee-jerk free-trade position enunciated by the beltway pundits was annoying enough. But for Will to blithely assert that the essence of free trade was the elimination of environmental and labor protections was incredibly revealing. His ilk seems exclusively interested in fattening their stock portfolios, with nothing but hostility for those who have a quaint desire to breathe the air or get health care. Will also trotted out the long-debunked notion that most people on the minimum wage are students or part-time workers. I really hate that man.

My one consolation is that the Washington media types appear to be losing their ability to shape the public debate. On November 7 the voters forcefully demonstrated their ability to think for themselves, shrugging off the manipulations of the D.C. press corps or the fear-mongering of the Republican Party. For which I can only say "thank God."