Making sense

In this time of over-the-top hostility -- whether it be in the Senate or the playing field -- it is a relief to know that some of your opponents are, in fact, worthy adversaries who dare to tell the truth.

I give you Senator John McCain, on Bill Frist:

On Thursday, one wavering Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, told a television interviewer, Chris Matthews, that he would vote against the change.

"By the way, when Bill Clinton was president, we, effectively, in the Judiciary Committee blocked a number of his nominees," Mr. McCain said.

And Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, on Gary Sheffield's altercation with a "fan" last night.

Johnny Damon praised Sheffield for not going after the fan more. "He was definitely upset, but he restrained himself," Damon said.

Damon acknowledged that he's felt "like I wanted to go up and do something about it (with fans). Sometimes, even away from the park, they for whatever reason annoy you. As much as you'd like to, I've had to restrain myself. He did a great job restraining himself."

Regarding the event in the fens last night, let me just say that when you are given the privilege to watch a baseball game -- whether it be in the Bronx or Boston -- you have not paid for the right to participate actively in the game. I don't know what the jerk was trying to do, but he definitely wasn't just trying to get a souvenir ball.

As for Frist, he has gone well beyond the nuclear option, and is now planning to enlist the "theocratic option."

WASHINGTON, April 14 - As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

That Bill Frist, always one to try to lower the temperature of the debate. As Josh Marshall writes, what more are we going to have to put up in this creep's run for president?

UPDATE: I didn't intend to imply that Gary Sheffield should be given a pass for reacting to the idiot in right field. He should have thrown the ball to the cut-off man, then gone and gotten an umpire to say he'd been interfered with. Only wanted to say that it is appreciated that the Red Sox players were willing to criticize their fans and not escalate this with the Yankee players.