What are they polling - er, thinking?

The conventional wisdom, as spouted on talk shows and op-edpages, is that the public is just as sick and tired of "the WhiteHouse in crisis" as the commentariat professes to be. I for one amnot tired. I used to be, but now that this whole mess has turned thecorner and is moving toward some form of catharsis, I'm getting mysecond wind.

But I am sick. I'm sick of the way poll-quoting has become asubstitute not only for debating but also for thinking. Just as weare being forced to accustom ourselves to polling as a substitute forleadership, we now have to get used to politicians awash in thefacts, the law and, presumably, their sense of right and wrong,reaching - when …