Cheer yourself up: Go read Charles Pierce’s takedown of Paul Begala and James Carville’s new book:

Boys, here’s a tip: On television, Tucker Carlson once glibly dismissed the personal-injury case that made John Edwards rich as a “jacuzzi case.” In that case, a little girl’s intestines were pulled out through her anus. Tucker Carlson is not a good guy. Gary Bauer’s political positions, if enacted, would drag this country back to a much crueler time. Gary Bauer is not a good guy.

Tim Russert spent the entire year pretending not to know the details of a critical national security story — See pages 137-141 of your own damn book — in which he was intimately involved. I don’t care if one of you is hosting a sports-talk show with Little Russ Jr. Little Russ Sr. is indefatigable only in his pursuit of his own perceived eminence. Halprin’s The Note is a daily transmission belt of all the phony talking-points you rail against over 11 chapters — ask Eric, if you don’t believe me — and that he is one of the “smartest people you know in the media” sadly doesn’t surprise me a bit.

Crossfire is — or, rather, was — the problem. Remember that Begala was as gobsmacked as Carlson was when Jon Stewart declined to play his assigned role. Being the opposing meat puppet to Bob Novak, a truly evil presence in American journalism, isn’t engaging the issues. It’s being an accessory. In fact, the strangest anecdote in the book comes when, while interviewing Begala and Novak, Wolf Blitzer clumsily insults Begala’s Catholicism.

Begala righteously — and rightfully — goes up the wall citing, among other things, the fact that his eldest son is named John Paul, after the late pope. (Good thing for the kid, too, that he was born recently. In another era, he might be named Urban Gelasius Begala.) Unanswered is the question of why Begala ever would appear on television again, not only with an evil homunculus like Novak, but with a host who so casually spit on his religious faith. It’s the same question John McCain can’t answer: Why would he embrace a president who slandered McCain’s child for political advantage?

When, in God’s name, is enough simply enough?

Get out of Washington, boys. Get off television. Stay away from Imus.

This isn’t the marketplace of ideas. It’s the brothel. Forget Mother Clinton’s golden dream. Get out into the country that you say all those Democratic elitists don’t understand and elect some state legislators who can become congresscritters. Take a stand that might actually cost you a dinner reservation. Do your real jobs.

Ite, missa est.