Regarding Rich’s visit to Cornell to debate David Corn: Yes, it probably will be a he said/he said over whether Bush is a liar. This thought: When I was at the RNC during the second Clinton term, I can distinctly recall the Chairman, Jim Nicholson, refusing to use words such as “liar” — even once it became apparent that Clinton was knowingly telling falsehoods. He genuinely felt that such harsh terms were out of bounds – that you didn’t say such things about a sitting President, out of respect for the office. The trend since then, to paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan, clearly has been to define the discourse down.