Is Rick Warren, pastor of a California mega-church and author of The Purpose Driven Life considered unacceptable in American society at large? Was Obama's invitation to Warren to speak at his inauguration akin to, in today's world, inviting a white supremacist, an anti-Semite, or a blatant misogynist to speak? To put it another way, is Rick Warren beyond the pale?

Before I attempt to answer, I have to insert a little linguistic history here. Because the use of the word "pale" in that last question is in no way related to any sort of description of color. "Pale" in this instance means "fence." The same root word gives us "palisade." Pale has been used this way since Middle English was spoken, to describe a fence of stakes erected to keep the barbarians out. "Beyond the castle walls" would be a direct equivalent. The concept was used more recently in Ireland, where the area around Dublin (which the English held) was known simply as "The Pale," which kept the "wyld Irysh" out.

Inside the pale, in other words, is civilization and polite society. Outside the pale is barbarism and savagery. So what, exactly is still allowed in the American pale of thought? That is the question.

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Welcome (once again) to the second part of my annual tribute to the McLaughlin Awards. [Part 1 ran last week, in case you missed it.]

Now, the McLaughlin Group television show (on a PBS channel near you) last week did not do Part 1 of their awards, so it looks like they're running a week late. But my schedule is locked in, so we continue with our year-end awards here, and hopefully you'll be able to check my picks with theirs next week (and my picks last week with what they run this week). Got all that? Well, don't worry, there won't be a quiz at the end or anything.

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Dateline: Washington, D.C., Christmas Eve, 2008

I fully admit I would rather be at home now than covering the annual "sit on Santa's lap" photo-op for politicians, but I seem to have annoyed my editor, so here I am -- your intrepid holiday reporter. While I fully admit that I did spike the punch at our annual holiday party, I explain this away in traditional Washington fashion -- by stating that I was young and irresponsible when this occurred. Last week, I was much younger and much more irresponsible than I am now. Ahem. Besides, nobody got hurt (much) and I think everyone had a much better time at the party as a result... the "Elf Incident" aside.... Anyway, this explains why I was assigned to cover this particular event -- instead of being snug at home in my bed, wondering what a sugarplum looks like (in case one should dance in my head tonight).

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I am not usually an enormous fan of California's senior senator. But I have to give Dianne Feinstein credit where credit is due, and praise her for stepping up to the plate on introducing some accountability and limits to the Wall Street bailout money. Also (being filled with the holiday spirit) I have words for praise for Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN) and even Joe Lieberman (Joe Liebermans For Joe Lieberman Party - CT).

Today, Senator Feinstein put out a joint press release with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) on a bill they cosponsored back in November. Their announcement is that they will be reintroducing S. 3698 once Congress reconvenes. This bill would ban the use of any bailout money for lobbying or political donations, would force the Treasury to come up with regulations about the use of such money for perks, private parties, corporate jets, and even year-end holiday parties. It would also force recipients of the bailout money to publish quarterly reports on how the money is used, to be made available to the public.

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Comparison shopping is big this time of year. As a consumer, you want the best value for your money, so you tend to compare different businesses and see where your dollar will go further. I'd like to apply this commonsense notion to the two most recent bailouts that all of us -- the American taxpayers -- have just "purchased" with our tax dollars.

The first was the bailout of Wall Street (known to wonks as "TARP"), which will cost $700 billion, half of which has been allocated by Congress and subsequently spent. The second is the bailout of the auto industry, which could wind up costing a little over $17 billion for the next few months.

I've been waiting for someone to intelligently compare the two, and finally read the article I've been looking for this weekend. It was written by Bruce Raynor for the Los Angeles Times. Raynor is the head of a union, and is also the chairman of the board of the only union-owned bank in America (according to the Wall Street Journal). So I would assume he'd have a pretty good perspective on both bailouts.

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Welcome to our annual awards! For the past three years, this column has paid homage (translation: "ripped off their gimmick") to the McLaughlin Group television show by handing out our own year-end awards (while using the same categories). This will be a two-part column, with the second installment appearing one week from today. And feel free to watch the McLaughlin Group on your local PBS station this weekend, to compare my picks with theirs.

Also, just for comparison's sake (to see how many things I got wrong, in other words), here are the previous two years' columns:

[2006, Part 1] [2006, Part 2] [2007, Part 1] [2007, Part 2]

Without further ado, let's move on to the awards!

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We haven't done one of these in a while, but between working on tomorrow's column (don't miss Part One of our annual awards show!) and all the usual holiday stuff, I don't have enough time for more than a few short items here. Oh, I did want to say thanks to everyone who has donated so far to the "Send Chris To The Inauguration Fund" as we have just topped halfway towards our giving goal. I sincerely appreciate the support.

But let's get on with today's tidbits...

...In England, they actually spell it "titbits" but it got bowdlerized in America long ago. This isn't even really "news" but it was such a good segue I simply couldn't resist it...

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The Illinois Supreme Court has just, without comment, rejected what was in essence a coup attempt by the state Attorney General, which would have installed the Lieutenant Governor in Governor Blagojevich's place. Attorney General Lisa Madigan's legal reasoning was, to put it mildly, unique. She tried to make the case that the Governor was "unfit for duty" and therefore had to be replaced so the state could continue to function. The entire episode raises a bigger question: could this ever happen to the President of the United States? The answer turns out to be: "Yes, but... it'll probably never happen."

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This is not a follow up to what I wrote last Friday, because this isn't about Illinois Governor Blagojevich's "crude" language. Instead, I write today about Blaggy's crude tactics. Because I'm kind of having a hard time condemning him for doing almost the same thing as what other politicians do more successfully (and completely "legally") with a wink and a nod. There's a game, and there are certain rules to the game. Blaggy went a bit too far, and was caught. He is now paying the price. But what he "got caught" at isn't that all that different from what many (if not most) politicians -- of both parties -- do.

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I know it's a lot more interesting to talk about two shoes getting thrown at President Bush in Iraq, but two more important stories are getting ignored as a result. These are two metaphorical "shoes" thrown at Bush, by the Senate and by Bush's own Inspector General in Iraq. And they're going to have a much more lasting impact on how history sees our Iraq adventure than one video clip of a guy hucking his footwear at President Bush. Because they deal with torture, and the failure of the Iraq reconstruction effort.

Last Thursday, Carl Levin's Senate Armed Services Committee released a report which basically called Bush and his entire National Security Council war criminals. Of note was the fact that the Senate committee voted for the report unanimously. Every single Republican (led by John McCain), along with all the Democrats, voted for this report. And the language the report uses is not the usual vague "mistakes were made" sort (which is often a necessity forced upon the such committees as a whole, by one party or another).

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