I've spoken about how blogs can benefit Democratic candidates, and while I firmly believe that this is and will continue to be true, it's not a freebie. As Stephanie Herseth is surely learning, the blogreading public is very much in the activist camp, and we don't appreciate candidates who don't stand up for our principles. We want to give you our support, but we're not going to let ourselves get sold down the river in the process.

Obviously, one of the reasons for the "Hate Amendment", as Kos calls it, was to sow dissension within the Democratic ranks, and it annoys me to no end that it's had an effect. What's worse is that this should have been easy to sidestep. Just throw it right back at the Republicans - "We believe that the Constitution is a document that should not be tampered with lightly, and we believe that joblessness, terrorism, the deficit, and rising health care costs are a far greater threat to the family than anything else." (Ginger is more succinct and even less wishy-washy than I am.) Leadership is about making people go places they wouldn't go on their own, and I'm really getting tired of those on my side who claim to be leaders but run away from every opportunity to actually get out in front of the crowd and influence its direction. Heat, kitchen - you know the rest.

I'll say it again and again - I'm a half-a-loaf kind of guy, and I'll overlook a lot of sins to get a lesser evil in place. But even I have my limits. Help me out here, folks.