Joe Klein's column in Time June 18 represents a window into his current thinking as he along with other mainstream media figures spin the ongoing Democratic Party presidential primary contest.

In viewing Klein on television and reading his ongoing commentary in both Time and Newsweek he maintains a steady pattern cautioning Democrats against straying too far to the left, and that ignoring basic rules of politics pertaining to the "vital center" will result in potential calamity for the party.  

In his June 18 column Klein was particularly dismayed by the level of antagonism and verbal hammering he received on Time's blogging site, Swampland, after reporting an anticipated vote of Representative Jane Harman of California on the Iraq War funding bill.  

When Representative Harman changed her mind and voted against the bill after earlier telling Klein that, after a personal visit to Iraq, she had decided to vote for it, the political journalist describes an angry deluge that descended on him that he believes could auger badly for the Democratic Party should this conduct continue.

Lately you have received favorable comments from the mass media, Hillary, and it would be advisable to analyze how you achieved it.  No less than Joe Klein, the sage of Time and Newsweek, has you pegged as a very tough lady.

You have used the "naïve" label to describe how one of your 2008 Democratic presidential opponents, Barack Obama, failed to exercise some of that tough leadership that you indicate would be part of your operational pattern if you secure your party's nomination and are elected president.

Actually Hillary, I learned long ago through the regular pattern of life and the knocks one takes in the process of living that the only sensible barometer in ceding authority to someone for any purpose lies in understanding that individual.  

If an individual fails to withstand a basic integrity test predicated on past experience then the only response to that individual's request for support to a basic "trust me" question is a resounding "No"!

When it comes to spinning media snake oil tales about imagining the way that things could be and wishing them into existence through the printed page, Joe Klein has few equals.  A definitive major media insider, Klein serves as columnist for not one but two prominent national publications, Time and Newsweek.

Klein's soft sell approach is clever, masquerading the propaganda of the messenger and messages.  He could well be termed Krauthammer Light, a friendlier, more agreeable version of the perpetually dyspeptic, combatively ardent neoconservative Charles Krauthammer.

Joe Klein attained fame and riches through the publication of a thinly disguised fictional work about Bill Clinton, a humorous Slick Willy expose called "Primary Colors" that made him all the more famous since it was initially written anonymously.  There is nothing that sells faster than the curiosity engendered by an "I want to be alone" demeanor, as evidenced by Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes.

The consistent message to Democrats has been a warning to not jeopardize electoral success through undue negativism concerning Cheney-Bush.  Bill O'Reilly has been delivering the same consistent message.  The messengers who saw nothing wrong with the relentless assault on Clinton deliver the harbinger of failure in the wake of allegedly mean-spirited attacks by Democrats.

After all, what do we really have to be upset about?  What's a debt in excess of $8 trillion amid a tap dance of crony capitalism and one-sided tax cuts in favor of the Cheney-Bush Junta's wealthy clients?  People are getting upset over the shredding of the Bill of Rights?  

What good are search warrants anyway?  We're fighting the war on terror!  So what if we're being spied on, it's all in a good cause.  Lighten up on poor Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld already!