ON ASSIGNMENT: We have an event later this week which requires preparation (and a mood alteration). And so we won’t post again until the end of the week—most likely, not until Saturday.

Note: At that time, we will finish our suspended piece about Frank Rich’s most recent column. (We think it illustrates a basic problem with a certain type of “liberal” advocacy.) And we’ll comment about Monday’s Maddow-Frum exchange; we’ve received several interesting e-mails about it. Last night, we thought Keith Olbermann built an unhelpful framework around the event—a framework which had largely been hammered into place on the liberal web.

What do we see these days, when we look out at the world TDH covers? In today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd quotes David Brooks, who complains that Sarah Palin “has reinforced the worst of talk-radio culture” since becoming McCain’s nominee. We certainly agree with that, though our own assessment would be a good deal stronger. But as we look at the world TDH covers, we keep thinking we’re seeing that same “talk-radio culture” infecting the (growing) world of “liberal” advocacy. We think that tendency is bad for the world, for progressive interests. Some of our readers tend to think different—setting up an intriguing debate.

Once again, here’s the tape of that Maddow-Frum exchange, as posted by tristero. Our reaction was somewhat different from tristero’s. You may not have watched the tape yet. Once again, we recommend that you give it a look.