WASHINGTON, Oct.

By MAUREEN DOWD PITTSBURGH - The guilty pleasure I miss most when I'm out slogging on the campaign trail is the chance to sprawl on the chaise and watch a vacuously spunky and generically sassy chick flick.

THE headline on the conservative blog, Townhall, stormed: "Book to Smear First Lady's Sex Life." Radar magazine proclaimed: "On the gossip front, the novel doesn't disappoint," adding that its steamy and lurid scenes were "sure to send the White House into a fury." MSNBC.com called the sex scenes "too graphic to reprint." The cover of this fantasy version of Laura Bush's life, "American Wife," is alluring, a woman's shapely figure in a white gown, with white opera gloves and a diamond ring.

IN grim times, a bitter Hillary clings to bitter voters who in grim times supposedly cling to guns, religion and antipathy to people who aren't like them.

By Marv Adams Good grief! Say what? Last shall be first Yes, you are Following is another installment of comments from readers. You can't make up this kind of stuff. nFrom an e-mail: "Why bring back Hagar [the Horrible]'? It is such a boring comic.