I've rarely been happier to admit that I was wrong.

I feel a lot the same way, J! Even such a tiny step as this one is very surprising. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but as Kos notes, the only thing that Senator Boxer's courageous battle is going to accomplish, is that the Republican-dominated Congress will have two separate hearings of about two hours each before they rush to coronate George Bush. Won't even be a footnote in the history books. Nevertheless, even that minor accomplishment seems to loom large compared to how gingerly the Dems in Washington have treated Bush for five years. It's like we live in a Grimm fairy tale, or something, where everyone is afraid to speak up against the king for fear of losing their heads.
Naturally part of the reason for that is because even such a minor digression still earns you a mailbox full of death threats from the radical Right. We can't do anything about how the Right reacts, but so much of the problem is due to how Democrats react. Here's a trip down the Memory Hole: Take a look at the Fox News article describing Boxer's objection. ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143510,00.html ) Then take a look at the Google cache of the same article ( http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:jlJYxgC5AMQJ:www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143510,00.html+boxer+object+ohio+vote&hl=en&start=2 ). Notice what got scrubbed? The very last paragraph: "One Democratic leadership source also criticized Boxer, suggesting, 'It would not be preferable for her to object.'"
Err... ***AHEM*** a 'Democratic leadership source'? Can I be forgiven for concluding that was a poorly scrubbed citation of a 'Democratic Leadership COUNCIL source'?
And some days, it's just hard to keep track of the conspiracies. Did Fox scrub that quote because they don't want Democrats to appear at all likeable and reasonable to their Republican readers? Or did the DLC call up and say "Hey, you're gonna take our core voters away from us if you report on how we _actually feel_" ?? WTF??