ESTRICH EPIPHANY: In rising to defend Fox News against typical left-wing rancor, Susan Estrich reveals — or perhaps lets slip — her understanding that the left cannot win political campaigns or cultural battles by openly advocating leftist ideology:

I not only have worked for every network, I also worked, formally or informally, for every Democratic candidate to run for president in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I understand the difference between running on the left and losing, and running in the center and winning. I wrote three Democratic Party platforms. I see no honor in defeat. I’d rather win in the middle than lose on the left...

Estrich (whose credits include managing Michael Dukakis's 1988 comedy of errors, aka presidential campaign) is supporting Hillary for 2008. Which of course means Susan still believes its possible for a successful candidate to govern from the left, after pretending to be a moderate during the campaign. It's the safest guess of the year that skilled GOP operatives are busy assembling a take-no-prisoners effort to pull back the curtain on this last-gasp left-wing strategy. Hillary has been a fierce leftist ideologue a lot longer than she's been a "come let us reason together" moderate. Much life history to work with.