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Knowing they're fighting a lost cause, Democrats who oppose putting John Roberts on the Supreme are grasping at straws by seeking something they know they can't get  -- the work product of attorney-client privilege. Note in this story that the first one to ask for "full disclosure" was John Kerry.

Nope, nope, nope. County Assessor Pat Love says it's no big deal that, because math isn't her strong suit, she has flunked the state-required test for assessors three times. She's good at managing people, and that's what really matters. Where have we heard this before?

Now that Lance Armstrong has won his seventh big-deal bicycle race, is it OK for me to say I was really getting tired of it, and I hope he really does retreat to a cabin in the woods somewhere for a few years and assess his future, quietly? I admire pluck as much as the next person, but that "perseverance of a cancer survivor" life story started wearing a little thin after the fifth win. Call me mean.

As a former member of the U.S. Army, my answer to this question posed in a USA Today headline is, "Oh, please, no, no, no, a thousand times no." There is a woman I'd like to see in that position -- she's the right person in the right place at the right time, I think -- but it sure ain't Hillary.

I love the Web. It was just Monday, in a post on the death of novelist Evan Hunter, when I wrote this:

On the down side, he is said to have helped Alfred Hitchcock with the screenplay for "The Birds," the master-of-suspense director's most infuriating movie. Where did the birds come from? Why did they start attacking people? Why did they stop? I need closure!

A lot of people have made a lot of silly statments about a possible replacement for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. This suggestion by columnist Richard Cohen to pick Judge Judy might just be the silliest one so far. Yes, Cohen is trying to be clever, but he also says he's mostly serious.

Drat. Indiana gets slighted in another one of those "best of" lists. CNN and Money magazine have compiled a list of the 100 best places to live, and it looks like only two Indiana cities get a mention -- Fishers, Pop. 48,900, just outside of Indianapolis, at No. 24; and Dyer, Pop. 16,800, outside Gary, at No. 97.

I do a feature for the Saturday editorial page called "Snob words," the noble purpose of which is to give people who want to show off the vocabulary to do it with. Last Saturday, I spotlighted prandial, "of or relating to a meal, especially dinner," and provided the helpful example, "A postprandial cigar is better than an antemeridian kick in the pants." Then I went one step too far and provided the bonus word "antemeridian: before noon." This prompted an e-mail from M.J. Guzek of Craigville, who pointed out that:

Consolidated government hasn't been much in the news lately, but people here are still working on it. One thing that will help the movement is increased pressure on the state to let go of its control as more and more cities and counties try to cope with shrinking revenues and an increasing demand for services. Evansville officials are further along than we are in designing a charter-government template.

Much of the journalistic community is in high "told you so" mode at the news that the Cleveland Plain Dealer has decided to sit on two investigative series because they are based on anonymous sources. Claiming to feel the "chilling effects" of the Judith Miller case, the Cleveland editor says the sources would be in trouble (likely of a legal nature) if they were outed. If the paper publishes, it will undoubtedly face the choice of identifying the sources or letting its reporters go to jail.