We’re off today serving the public: We’re off on a mission of national import. Thus, we present no HOWLER today.

It’s sad to review the ongoing yelling about the Sotomayor nomination. The ugliness seems to be par for the course. So too, the dumbness one observes on TV, from those who aren’t driving the ugliness. In our view, the dumbness one sees on TV is cause for the deeper concern.

As we’ve noted through the years, a deeply lazy fraternal order has seized control of our national discourse. This sad, unfolding public discussion constitutes a demonstration of that troubling fact.

(We’ve already paid, in the past eight years, for their dumbness all through the 1990s.)

On the other hand, we saw an unusually smart point in a column this morning—although the point ought to be blindingly obvious. We’ll point to that point on the morrow.

Final essay question: Why have five panelists on Morning Joe, if none of the five show any sign of knowing a single durned thing? Except for the fact that Mika’s shoes are funny today, that is.