Note to San Francisco Postmaster:

Please forward all further patchouli oil shipments to Nebraska, as the lunatic fringe has a new home.

Someone needs to buy Chuck Hagel a drink for breaking ranks with Berlin. While it's not fashionable to bring attention to Republicans saying sensible things, your correspondent approves of the occasional departure from fashionable living. The angry left has not given proper attention to Senator Hagel's prudent comments:

"How do we realistically believe that a continuation of the systematic destruction of an American friend, the country and people of Lebanon, is going to enhance America’s image and give us the trust and credibility to lead a lasting and sustained peace effort in the Middle East?"

The Senator's assessment of Iraq is also accurate:

"The longer we stay in Iraq, the more similarities [to Vietnam] will start to develop, meaning essentially that we are getting more and more bogged down, taking more and more casualties, more and more heated dissension and debate in the United States."

Now that the Brownshirts have started attacking the gentleman from Nebraska, respectable citizens should consider him one of their own. Assuming, of course, there isn't some unfortunate mishap in the cloakroom.