Will Migden survive the spring?

She's fighting for her political life after a punishing year. And yeah, we agree this rhetoric after the last post rings especially hollow, but too late, we're on that track.

In August, she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a wild, 30-mile ride down Interstate 80, weaving through traffic, bouncing off the center divider and finally rear-ending a car. In March, she agreed to pay a record $350,000 fine to the state for campaign finance violations that included personal use of campaign funds.

Migden argued that many of the violations were the result of sloppy bookkeeping and that her campaign had reported many of the violations to the Fair Political Practices Commission. She also won a legal battle against the political watchdog agency that allowed her to use more than $600,000 from previous campaigns.

"I regret that chapter of my career, but I've done what's responsible ... paying my fine and taking responsibility," she said.

That chapter? Like it was longer than a few weeks ago?

One thing this race could highlight, but never seems to in articles (it's touched on here) are the various factions within the LGBT community - otherwise painted with a broad brush by the mainstream media. Hey, gay is gay, right? Men, women, whatever - if you're interested in your own gender you must think the same, across genders, right? Ish.

Mostly, though, this race highlights the little covered political axiom: Don't Be An Ass Because If You End Up Needing Friends You May Be Surprised To Find You Have None. Kevin Shelley found this out. Migden may find out in June.

The day-after analysis on this race will be awesome.

Please, can't we talk about this?

Our servicemen and women who make it to Iraq and back are facing challenges when they return home that we just aren't paying attention to.

They are killing themselves.

You almost have to laugh at the headline "Vets' growing suicide worries officials." Does it? Worry? Is that the most they can muster?

There are a few hopeful signs of change in our attitude and awareness:

The suicide figures among veterans have caught congressional attention. Two senators have demanded the resignation of Ira Katz, the VA official who wrote "Shh" at the top of the e-mail dealing with suicide attempts and disputed the statistics in public testimony while confirming them in internal documents. A House committee has scheduled a hearing on veterans' suicides this week.

Resignation is an awful nice thing to offer someone who thinks and does that.

Also, and I'm no mental health professional, but, we can't figure out what is bothering veterans?

The causes for this increase in veterans' suicide rates aren't well understood, but mental-health professionals say the biggest problem is post-traumatic stress disorder. The ailment, better-known as PTSD, is thought to afflict up to 30 percent of the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War is hell. Is that a good reason? Works for me. And it's probably as close as the non-serving among us can come to getting it.

The time for allowing ourselves to pay lip service and nothing more to those who have served us so willingly has passed.

Help them heal.