As some political experts have put it, George Felix Allen began this campaign season evaluating his upcoming senate reelection race in Virginia as nothing more than a speed bump in the road before running for president in 2008, a Republican Southern alternative to John McCain of Arizona.  

Now the speed bump has attained the level of a ponderous mountain that appears increasingly difficult for the once confident Allen to climb.  Yes, there is that unfortunate element for Senator Allen in the form of a steady population increase in Northern Virginia.

Those well read, politically savvy suburbanite professionals commute to and from the District Columbia, where they work.  They identify in large numbers with the Democrats.

Those Northern Virginians are progressives, citizens in touch with the present.  Allen's current campaign harkens back to the pathetic nadir of Strom Thurmond and Theodore Bilbo's Dixiecrats while his campaign style appears to be blending in with that of Republicans elsewhere in the nation, scrambling around aimlessly, reminiscent of the late nineties crackup of Britain's Conservative Party.  

Rush Limbaugh as a vessel of hate is a reliable barometer of where the Republican right that preaches about Christian virtue and compassionate conservatism really stands.  Limbaugh seemingly cannot go long without making tasteless comments laced with venom, a pattern as habitual as a duck taking to water.

Limbaugh's latest disgrace is his verbal attack on Michael J. Fox for having the sheer audacity to make a commercial favoring a Democrat running for political office, as the popular actor did when he endorsed Claire McCaskill for the Senate in Missouri.  

In observing that Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, was noticeably shaking during the commercial message in which he lauded McCaskill for her support of stem cell research, correlating it with efforts to combat diseases such as the one from which he suffers, Limbaugh made one of his sickest comments yet. Considering his extensive track record that encompasses significant ground.

Limbaugh made the observation that Fox in the ad for McCaskill appeared not to have taken his medication.  Later in the week, after being subjected to strong criticism for his tasteless observation, Limbaugh made a conditional apology.  "If I was really wrong then I apologize," Limbaugh responded.