Sometimes, gloating is justified.

Predictably, the post on "gloating" was received with mixed results. I'm getting calls to "rise above it" and "not be a force for division" etc. etc. And that's fine. Anybody who can demonstrate to me that they truly want healing more than division will get as much cooperation as I'm capable of giving.

But I simply ask those people to read that post again and take note on where it was specifically directed. To repeat really quickly, here's who I was talking to:

"For Hollywood types like Michael Moore, Al Franken, Janean Garafalo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand… gawd, I could go on forever here… For "news" types like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Chris Matthews, Paul Krugman, and on and on… For political types like Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Barbara Boxer, Cynthia McKinney, Jim McDermott… etc. etc. etc. For anyone who has said (or even suggested) that George Bush is a liar, an idiot, the modern equivalent to Hitler… you get the idea..."

Now, forgive me for being so blunt, but I don't have enough time to listen to anybody waste good air by defending these people. These are not people who want healing, or to bridge any divide. These are people who think that anybody who voted for Bush is an idiot and a nazi who should be run out of the country post-haste. Go read some of the things that these people were saying before the election, and what they've said since. If they had won, they'd be giving no quarter right now. They should expect none. Bridging a divide, when properly done, happens from both riverbanks at the same time. But what you have here are a bunch of people throwing rocks at the people on the other side of the river, and all the while yelling at them to start building the bridge.

There are many people on the Kerry side who are deserving of respect, consideration, humility and cooperation today, and I will gladly give it to those people. But the people I'm talking about are not among this group. If you think they are, you're probably not as objective and non-partisan as you think you are.