I was reading this blog entry by Arianna Huffington when something struck me that I've noticed before:

God knows I've had plenty of disagreements with Hillary -- especially on Iraq. But what Klein is doing is disgusting. It has nothing to do with Hillary's politics -- and everything to do with feeding the right-wing sleaze machine.

This bears no relation to legitimate political reporting -- and should not be treated as such. In fact, if there's a rape involved in this book, it's Ed Klein's attempted rape of the public discourse.

But with the help of bloggers (and as you'll see from the links below, they've been at it already), Klein's book can be seen for what it is: a sordid, slimy attempt to make a buck while helping advance a sordid, slimy political agenda.

Twice in one paragraph, Mrs. Huffington refers to the former First Lady and current junior senator from New York simply as "Hillary" - a term of personal friendship that may be appropriate for some but is not in an article on politics or public policy. Note that the author of the attack book is "Klein" or "Ed Klein," not "Ed."

Methods used to control the public discourse are subtle, and one of the most subtle is intentionally reducing a public figure to the personal, intimate level so you can attack them personally and not professionally. We heard eight years of "Bill and Hillary" but haven't heard much about "George and Laura." The current president's father started this art form by always, always referring to the dictator of Iraq as "Saddam" (pronounced "Sodom" instead of "suh-DAHM", for obvious reasons), never as "Hussein" or, God forbid, "President Hussein." However, he does refer to the current dictator of Pakistan as "President Musharraf" and not as "Pervez."

Admittedly, it takes an unusual name to get away with this, which is why it hasn't happened to Sen. Kerry, Gov. Dean, or Al Franken. The only one it's happened to on the right is Rush Limbaugh, though there's just as much press using his last name as his first, even from his detractors. Possibly next: Barack Obama.

Progressives should stop enabling this. Unless you know Senator Clinton personally, you should refer to her by her title, just as you would Sen. Obama or Sen. Kennedy, or for that matter, Rep. DeLay or Sen. Frist. (Last-name only doesn't work for Sen. Clinton, since you must be clear on first reference that you're not talking about her husband, the former president.) The only way the knuckle-draggers look foolish using first names improperly is if they're the only ones doing it.