>>From this morning's Washington Post - I realize we are in a post-ironic age but for these words to come out of the mouth of a Kennedy shows that there is certainly no sense of irony left on the editors of Section A.
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>>KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND
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>>Lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003
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>>"Titillating as the stories of Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford may be -- particularly for those who, like me, are disgusted with hypocrisy of the Republican right -- I suspect that both have a fine future in politics if that is what either wants. Sin followed by redemption is a classic religious tale. Better the sinner who is found, the lamb who is rescued, the prodigal son who is welcomed back by the grieving father. America is the land of the second chance.
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>>Still, I wish that the return to the fold would be filled with less righteousness and more humility. But I hold little hope. Consider: Rush Limbaugh, a former drug addict, still rails against those he considers weak with no self-consciousness or reflection on his own lawlessness or addiction. Newt Gingrich jumps to the head of the Republican Party -- having left his wife as she lay in the hospital with hardly a nod to the pain that he caused. The faults to which they confessed did not prove an occasion for deepening love and compassion. "
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>>Wow.
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>I am surprised that a new political party hasn't sprung out of the past few years. Either that or the 'middle of the road' folks will all move to the Dem party and it will be predominantly those with only the extreme left and extreme right left out or ignored.

Yes, I think the polarization of the last twenty years or so has created room for a middle of the road group.