The Hiller Instinct: What's the Connection?

Arnold is ground zero of a renewed debate over what you can do and say and survive politically…

As charges of Arnold behaving badly mount, the key question: Is an alleged groper always an alleged groper, or, as one voter puts it, isn't the election about California's future, not Arnold's past?

The compression of past and present touches Maria Shriver, Arnold's wife and a Kennedy. Can she be truthful about her husband's past or is she just today's Hillary Clinton standing by her man despite the truth?

Truth was no defense for Mitt Romney, who was embarrassed when an aide linked the womanizing charges against Schwarzenegger with rumors from Ted Kennedy's past. Romney never said the link was a lie, but was forced to admit, immediately, just saying it was a real mistake.

Which brings us to talk radio... a political scream machine aimed at inflaming its audience. Locally, WEEI's John Dennis stupidly compared an ape to an African American.

Dennis claims he didn't know what he was saying, but neither ignorance nor the first amendment may be enough to save his job.

And talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh lost a TV job when he questioned the skills of a black pro quarterback.

Is it possible the race for the White House is why our political conversation has turned into an angry argument?

As President Bush campaigns for re-election, the national unity that came with the war on terrorism is being torn apart. The differences the war in Iraq concealed are once again clear, making politics more provocative and more personal:

Richard Gephardt (D) Presidential Candidate, Sept. 4
"This president is a miserable failure... he is a miserable failure."

What this is really about is power. About who determines what's in line or out of bounds. About who controls the agenda. Before the war on terror we were a nation divided... and now we are again.