Gee.

Hoffmania reminds us to celebrate Bush's 38% approval rating (in too deep, there's no getting out of it, in too deep, no doubt about it) by taking a stroll down memory lane. Come with me, won't you, to December 20, 1998, when CNN reported:

Poll: Clinton's approval rating up in wake of impeachment

December 20, 1998
Web posted at: 10:48 p.m. EST (0348 GMT)

(AllPolitics, December 20) -- In the wake of the House of Representatives' approval of two articles of impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval rating has jumped 10 points to 73 percent, the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows.

That's not only an all-time high for Clinton, it also beats the highest approval rating President Ronald Reagan ever had.

At the same time, the number of Americans with an unfavorable view of the Republican Party has jumped 10 points; less than a third of the country now has a favorable view of the GOP.

Despite concerns that public calls for Clinton's resignation would rise after his impeachment, the number of Americans who want Clinton to resign has remained statistically unchanged. Only 30 percent want Clinton to resign; only 29 percent want the Senate to convict Clinton and remove him from office.

The poll, released Sunday, also shows that 35 percent approve of the House's decision to impeach the president.

Kind of makes you think, doesn't it? And wonder what might have happened if Gore hadn't treated Clinton as if he were a diseased rapist when he was running in 2000. Yeah, Clinton disappointed me too. But this is what made me nuts: All the politician and journalist bluenoses who kept acting as though this was the worst thing anyone had ever done and would detonate his presidency.

When poll after poll after poll kept saying the American public did not think this was grounds for resignation, and did not approve of the impeachment hearings.

Why didn't Gore or any other Democrats ever get a clue? All they had to to was stand up and stand by their guy. The country liked their guy, and they didn't like the people who were doing this to him.

But, the Democrats didn't do that. They ran and cowered in a corner and whispered about and pointed at Clinton like teenage girls in a bathroom (I'm guessing). For this reason, there is part of me that thinks they richly deserved the ass-kickings they got in 2000 and 2004.

Trouble is, the rest of us don't.