I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.

Journalism has a special, hallowed place for stories of its practitioners' persecution.

For-profit higher education is today a booming industry, feeding on the student loans handed out to the desperate.

In the subprime mortgage industry, bankers handed out iffy loans like candy at a parade because such loans meant revenue and, hence, bonuses for executives in the here-and-now.

The thing now is to seem concerned in a vaguely social-democratic way.

Above all else stands the burning question of bipartisanship. Whatever else the politicians might say they're about, our news analysts know that this is the true object of the nation's desire, the topic to which those slippery presidential spokesmen need always to be dragged back.

What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party.