"You are stating that you don't think religion, or the religious fervor of this particular person, Hasan, had, really, any impact on this whatsoever," she alleged early on.

Hmmm, I thought. That's strange. "No," I pointed out. "That's not what I'm saying at all. I think we have a complicated situation here."

Not complicated to her. Ingraham's investigation has already resulted in some conclusive results, which she shared with me. "What's complicated?" she stammered. "He is screaming Allah-u-Akbar! He is e-mailing al-Qaida and asking one of the procurement officers for Osama bin Laden what he can do to forward the Jihad in the United States," she announced. "And we are saying this is all that complicated?"

She then ran a quote from my appearance on "The Rachel Maddow Show" last Thursday: "I certainly have met mental healthcare providers in the military who, after sitting all day long and listening to some really disturbing tales," I said -- in part -- "and in combination with the fact that they are overwhelmed, overworked, don't have resources to do their jobs, become extremely stressed and frazzled. There is no reason to not think that this could ultimately lead to that kind of a conclusion."

Aha! Ingraham pounced. "So you did say that someone who is stressed and frazzled could be led to do this horrible act!" she said, calling my analysis "lazy."

"You never talked about the crazy Jihadi ideas," she went on, "I don't believe, with Rachel Maddow. Did you?"

"I believe I did," I responded.

What Ingraham did not say is that she had deleted the sentences I said immediately prior to the quote she used. Immediately before that Maddow quote, I had noted, "Well, it certainly could be a combination of factors. There are people who believe that this is a person who is suffering from some kind of secondary post-traumatic stress from treating soldiers," I noted. "And there are people who believe he was somehow influenced by Muslim extremism. I think it could be a combination of both."

I then noted on Ingraham's radio show that there "obviously was a religious thing" going on with the story, as I said on TV.

"I'm surprised you are saying that," she fired back. "I'm glad you are saying that."

"I've been saying that for days," I pointed out. "I've done five TV hits in the past week, which obviously you did not watch." (In fact, the day after Maddow, I appeared on "Countdown With Keith Olbermann." On Olbermann's show I said, in part, "I mean, we've got a guy who clearly had a pretty twisted version of Islam and was getting, you know, increasingly militant.")

"Well," Ingraham admitted. "I don't watch MSNBC often. Nor does anybody," she said. "I did see the Rachel Maddow piece and I'm pretty sure you did not mention Jihadism."

True. I mentioned "Muslim extremism." And in the world of pixie dust, fairies and death panels, I guess that's not the same. Up is down. Black is white. I didn't say what I said.

At one point, Ingraham went so far as to suggest I was blaming U.S. troops for the massacre, since their experiences in war were so troubling. She summarized my alleged argument as, "Yeah. We suck."

Later, via e-mail, I sent Ingraham my entire quote from Maddow and asked her if what she did on her show "was an accurate portrayal of my position."

"Not playing an entire previous interview of a guest is hardly misrepresentation," she responded, though I had not sent along the full transcript.

During the radio interview Tuesday, Ingraham apparently became frustrated with my efforts to discuss this matter, telling her producer to "put down his mike or this ends right here."

I then found that my end of the conversation had become muted. I could no longer be heard on the radio -- only she could. So, I hung up. In an e-mail afterward, Ingraham recounted this as, "It was your choice to hang up before the interview was over."

Finally, something accurate. Technically.

"Oh, he hung up," she'd said on the radio after she cut off my mike. "The left really don't want to have a conversation."

Audio of the interview is below. Thanks to Media Matters for providing it.

That kind of bluntness was probably what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, was going for when he asked the former president a few days ago to speak to the lunch. Democrats are struggling to hold their members in line so they have the 60 votes needed to block likely GOP attempts to filibuster the legislation. The healthcare bill the House passed Saturday night didn't entirely set conservative Senate Democrats' minds at ease. So Clinton came in to tell the caucus they had to act, even if they didn't love whatever the legislative process produced. And they have to act fast, he said -- by next year, President Obama will have to focus more on the economy to help it recover, and it'll be too late for healthcare.

Clinton, obviously, was the last Democratic president to try to fix the country's healthcare system. Senators said he didn't spend much time dwelling on how the process did or didn't work in 1993 and 1994, but he did remind them that opportunities for reform don't come up that often.

Democrats are still grappling with questions about what kind of public option the Senate's healthcare bill should have, how to handle the abortion restrictions the House put into its bill and how to pay for some of the costs of the legislation. But Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told Salon Clinton didn't get into any of that, preferring to focus on the big picture. Though Clinton took a few questions from senators after speaking, none of them dealt with healthcare, Cardin said.

The former president's Secret Service detail, and the Capitol Police, blocked off several hallways as Clinton left the lunch, but that didn't stop a large crowd from gathering on the second floor, hoping to get a glimpse of, or catch a few words from, him. Clinton obliged, staying for about 10 minutes to take questions from reporters and generally bask in the attention before aides shuttled him out of the building.

That sort of thing has been a consistent theme from Obama, both on the trail and while he's been in the White House, the message being that people should stop focusing on the small, silly things that characterize so much of politics, preventing actual substance from being part of the discussion.

In some ways, Obama and his team have tried to live up to that. In others, well, they're just as guilty as everyone else.

One of the sillier, more trivial stories from the presidential campaign, and perhaps the one that got people on the left most consistently riled, was what started out as a pretty short blog post by Politico's Ben Smith, who reported that John Edwards had been getting $400 haircuts. Though other scandals have since overshadowed memories of Edwards' 2008 campaign, it was a big deal at the time, and it stuck around for quite a while. 

Well, now we know who was responsible for the distraction and the silliness that emanated from that story: Obama's campaign. Campaign Manager David Plouffe revealed the truth in his new book, writing, "We did much less of this [opposition research] than other campaigns did, but there were times we indulged -- it was our researchers who found John Edwards's infamous $400 hair cut expenditures."

Smith has posted the quote on his blog, and has acknowledged that the Obama campaign was the source of his information.

"But here is what you must also know: your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. Their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. Their life’s work is our security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- that is their legacy."

The president also made very brief remarks about each of the 13 people killed, talking about their lives in and out of the military and giving a little of their history. Perhaps the most striking aspect of his speech, though, the part that will have people talking later, was the way he talked about the U.S., mentioning diversity within the Army and freedom of religion in the country as a whole.

More excerpts from Obama's remarks:

It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know -- no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor. And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice -- in this world, and the next.

These are trying times for our country. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America, our allies, and innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. In Iraq, we are working to bring a war to a successful end, as there are still those who would deny the Iraqi people the future that Americans and Iraqis have sacrificed so much for.

As we face these challenges, the stories of those at Fort Hood reaffirm the core values that we are fighting for, and the strength that we must draw upon. Theirs are tales of American men and women answering an extraordinary call -- the call to serve their comrades, their communities, and their country. In an age of selfishness, they embody responsibility. In an era of division, they call upon us to come together. In a time of cynicism, they remind us of who we are as Americans.

We are a nation that endures because of the courage of those who defend it. We saw that valor in those who braved bullets here at Fort Hood, just as surely as we see it in those who signed up knowing that they would serve in harm’s way.

We are a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays for his crimes.

We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln’s words, and always pray to be on the side of God.

We are a nation that is dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. We live that truth within our military, and see it in the varied backgrounds of those we lay to rest today. We defend that truth at home and abroad, and we know that Americans will always be found on the side of liberty and equality. That is who we are as a people ....

So we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their service. May God bless the memory of those we lost. And may God bless the United States of America.

Update: Obama's speech is being hailed as one of the best he's given, perhaps his best since being inaugurated, and with good reason. You can see why in the video of his remarks below.

Of course, Hoffman didn’t win. Instead, after dropping out, Scozzafava helped deliver the race to Democrat Bill Owens with a well-timed endorsement of her former opponent. In an interview written up in Tuesday's Washington Post, she tells the story of leaving the race and throwing it to the Democrat. The piece reads like a morality play aimed at a wayward GOP.

After a wave of hostile -- often nastily so -- coverage from right-wing media and attacks from Republicans like Sarah Palin, Dick Armey and George Pataki (who had encouraged her to run), Scozzafava decided to leave the race. National Republicans were obviously relieved to be rid of her, and made that clear, getting in a few final kicks after she was down. Then, although Hoffman apparently expected her endorsement, he didn’t bother to call after she dropped out.

But Owens did call to offer his condolences. At the behest of the White House, so did New York Attorney General Andy Cuomo, who talked with Scozzafava about his own political humiliation in 2002, when he withdrew from the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination after it became clear he would lose. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and even former President Bill Clinton sought out Scozzafava as well.

Obviously, Cuomo, Schumer and the rest of the Democratic apparatus were acting out of self-interest, not just old-fashioned good-neighborliness. They wanted her endorsement. But that’s just the point; the GOP has been acting like it can win by doing what feels good. Meanwhile, the Democrats have gone about the actual work of coalition building, and it paid off with a seat in Congress.

Meanwhile, back in upstate New York, Scozzafava has been demoted from her GOP leadership position in the State Assembly, and is being courted to switch parties. This, of course, in a 150-member legislative body in which the Republicans control only 40 seats.