I was trying to point out we all have a natural tendency to try and cover for our side, and be really nit-picky when it comes to pointing out the flaws of the other.

For example. Bill Clinton technically deserved to be impeached because he committed perjury during the Monicagate investigations. The law is pretty clear about that. But at the same time, we all knew that the whole witch hunt about who Bill was dipping his wick in was purely political theater, and had nothing to do with his competence as a president. Nobody really cared about the President's sexual dalliances, only the Republicans did. American Presidential history is loaded with affairs, adultery and all sorts of other sexual misconduct, and only Clinton was punished for it. Why? Because it was all the Republicans could hang on him. I point out Clinton because he's my man, a Democrat. But Republicans are far from being sexual innocents themselves.

You can't blame people for looking real closely at the sins of the other side, and cavalierly dismissing as irrelevant the pecadilloes of their side. Its perfectly natural, and I'm guilty of it, too. We all tend to interpret the world according to our perceptions and our preconceptions.

I have convinced myself I am a scrupulously intellectually honest man, and yet I catch myself doing it all the time. So I'm not too shocked when the other side does it.

Now deliberately distorting the truth and making up lies because you want your side to win even when you definitely know better and often concerning an issue totally different than the one in dispute...well, that's something else again.

I expect a particular political party to bitterly oppose policies proposed by the other side they are in disagreement with. After all, that is their job, their duty.

But when they oppose policies their opponents favor even when they agree with them, just to make their opponents fail, even when it hurts the country as a whole, that is unforgivable. Maybe disreputable politicians have always done this, but today's Republican party has now done it openly and publicly, its part of their policy to get their economic and social agenda passed. And they make no effort to disguise or hide their treachery, they proclaim it publicly and proudly.

That's just not unforgivable, that's treason.