That's like saying, "someone dinged my car; I think I'll set it on fire for the insurance money. " It's a good example of why I wouldn't trust the likes of Coulter to "rehabilitate" any term though. She seriously needs to eat more; that's neither here nor there to her politics, but I can't believe she's healthy being that emaciated.

Don't even get me started on those two jokers, who've aptly demonstrated they were always about politics and merely used religion as a vehicle for it. Reed virtually ruined the Christian Coalition as a religious activist organization by offering their call list to the highest right wing bidder, and Robertsons pedigree is being the son of a former Democratic House member; apart from the one he FOUNDED I'm aware of no seminary he's ever attended (and I HAVE looked. ) I honestly believe that inside they are ravening wolves. The moral of the story is don't take everything that comes from the nearest pulpit as gospel (and yes, that applies to the Jeremiah Wrights as well, though I personally think he got caught up in his own rhetoric more than anything, but that's just one more reason to keep politics and religion distinct. )

It helped immensely that Atwater had no restraint or shame in how he went after the man. Not that he was alone; I believe it was Pat Buchanan who asked him, as a debate "moderator, " how he'd treat a man who raped and murdered his wife. Classy.

I like "progressive" because I associate it with some true giants of American political thought, and also because it could help defuse the culture wars. Everyone remembers Bryan vs. Darrow in the Scopes trial, but most people ignore the fact Bryan and Darrow were actually good friends and long time allies dating from a generation earlier when they were both labor activists, the one as the three time Democratic Presidential nominee and the other as a labor lawyer. And of course the founders of the Progressive Party were Republicans like TR and Robert La Follette who were just as disgusted by rampant corporate monopolies and other abuses as I am. There are, after all, several terms that carry the community and social justice oriented connotations you reference, but "populist" has become synonymous with demagoguery, and I certainly don't expect any American leftist to successfully promote communism any time soon. Really, I still think socialism better than communism anyway, because including elements of both capitalism and communism helps mitigate the worst excesses of both.