re: Liberal Irony Department...
Spare me the violin solo about the "tolerance" of the Democratic Party for opposing views in its own ranks. Check out the careers of pro-life Democrats.
Murpha is tolerated by the Democrats because he's harmless, and can be trotted out for charades like this. More influential conservative Democrats are treated like the Democrats are treating Zell Miller, or to a lesser extent, Joe Lieberman.
If America is the most hated nation in the world, compared to quite a few others I could list, it's largely due to the unending sales job done by people like you.