Cool your jets, BB. Richard Cohen says, first, that he didn't read all of his e-mails, and secondly, he says that "the e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred." That's what Cohen says. I'm quite sure that there were a few who took him to task in less that polite terms, but he's presumably a journalist, and should be used to that. The main thing his column is whining about is that he got a lot of e-mails from people who disagree with him. Trying to characterize people who disagree with him as full of "liberal hate" (although it would appear that appending the word "liberal" as an adjective to the word "hate" was your idea), as if were some sort of irrational characteristic of all liberals is pure political posturing. So who's not reading what, here?

The beauty of the Colbert stand-up routine is this:   all through his tenure as president, Bush has been insulated from protests or from people expressing their opinions where he has to, if not actually take notice, at least be aware that not everyone thinks he's God's gift to American government. The establishment of "free speech zones" where protesters can demonstrate all they want, blocks if not miles from where Bush is, so he doesn't have to even be aware that it's going on, and his refusal to speak with Cindy Sheehan, are ample indications that Bush doesn't give a rat's ass for the opinions of American citizens. He doesn't want to govern. He wants to rule. So Colbert comes along and lays it on him in circumstances where he has to sit there and listen to it for a change. Bloody good for Colbert!

Cohen has a hissy fit in his column, and gets a lot of e-mail from people who disagree with him. So he dismisses his readers' disagreement as "liberal hate." Although, once again, the use of the word "liberal" in this context seems to be more your idea.

A lot of the current crop of conservatives simple can't stand to have people disagree with them, so they try to blow off criticism with some ad hoc epithet like "liberal hate." But here's a clue:   criticizing the government is the traditional duty of the press. If the press won't do their job, then I guess it's up to stand-up comedians.

Don Firth