Joe Conason says conservative leaders are ordering their minions to avoid CNN's new Crossfire program because the people "from the left" are no longer really moderates who let bombastic right-wingers steamroll them.

Most political talk shows have historically had all the earmarks of a fixed fight. Which is, of course, exactly what conservatives prefer about the discourse on Fox News Channel, the opinion network where Sean Hannity roughs up poor Alan Colmes every night, and where Morton Kondracke is mistaken for a liberal because he sits next to Fred Barnes. They aren't content to dominate Fox and most of NBC's cable programming, where the Wall Street Journal editorial board enjoys its own featured weekly segment and Alan Keyes (a loony even by his own movement's standards) now appears on his own nightly show.

I may have to give this one a TiVo thumbs up.

It has been a very difficult few weeks for me personally, for some reasons I can't explain and for some reasons I won't explain. As difficult as it's been, I have been overcome tonight with gratitude for the people who got me this far, and I chose to exorcise some demons by etching their place in my personal history. You don't have to read this even if you know me. I just needed to write it.

Everyone talks about it, but not many people read it, or think about the document itself. Take a moment this day to visit the National Archives online and view the high-resolution images of the document that guarantees my right to say this and yours to read it. Look at the Bill of Rights up close. Read the 27th Amendment, one many people don't know exists.

And look at the original Declaration of Independence. It faded badly because we didn't know how to preserve it last century. Let's not let our great-grandchildren say the same about the rights and liberty it represents.