Watching Crossfire on CNN I've got to say that so far, Paul Begala has played right into Tucker Carlson's hands with the guest Ralph Nader. Instead of using this as a forum to further expose Bush, Begala basically attacked Nader by giving the old 2000 argument. True the amount of votes he got could and probably would have tipped the election, but Al Gore did run a poor campaign. I have abandoned my initial view that Ralph Nader should simply not run, and adopted a more positive outlook on the situation that some democrats, such as Begala do not see. Ralph Nader can attack President Bush in ways that John Kerry and the DNC simply can not afford to politically. Ralph Nader can energize an entire group of voters to be against George Bush that John Kerry would have a tough time doing. I agree with Ralph, this should be a situation we dreamed of. We have an attack dog that is not beholden to electoral votes and polls. We shouldn't look at it as splitting the vote. After 2000, the difference will be negligible. We should look at this as what it is, a crisis perhaps addressing where exactly the DNC is going wrong, and quite possibly moving too far to the center. While I still and will always fully support John Kerry, who is a good progressive Senator that is a large step in the right direction, I appreciate what Ralph Nader does, and I hope we can bring him in the fold sooner rather than later.

The President just gave a press conference announcing Rice will testify. I can't believe a guy elected to the highest office in the land is such a poor speaker. He sounds so unnatural and robotic, like a computer type-read program.

Don't forget to check out Air America radio, which launches tomorrow. You can listen to a live stream of the O'Franken Factor (Al Franken) beginning at noon EST here. Check here for a list of stations that will carry it.