En route to Iraq through the capital of this small, but important and moderate Arab nation whose King Abdullah has played a helpful role calming this region's turbulence and anti-Americanism. Like his dad, the late great King Hussein, Abdullah is reasonable, progressive and modern.

Sorry I've been so long away. Life gets so busy with so many public and private events competing for center stage in the heart and mind that it is easy to avoid doing the optional in favor of doing just the mandatory. And the less I write the more things pile up that I want to write about.

Let's start with the death of the incomparable Kurt Vonnegut. Along with Rand, Forester, Tolstoy, and Tolkien, Vonnegut's writings helped shape my world. Ostensibly a comedy and filled with scenes of aliens, abductions and time travel, 'Slaughter House-Five' was at its heart as vivid and eloquently anti-war as 'Paths of Glory'. 'The Sirens of Titan', 'Cat's Cradle', and 'Breakfast of Champions' were also deceptively gentle excoriations of militarism and pretension.

Saturday Night Live had a funny bit last night mocking the preoccupation of the news business with the Anna Nicole Smith story. They even mocked my old friend and highly regarded CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.

I don't make any apologies for the extensive media coverage. It follows, rather than creates audience interest. And in this intriguing case, there's plenty to grab your attention. But after last night's show that we did on location at the Marathon, Florida home Anna Nicole stayed during her pregnancy, which included the chilling testimony of the housekeepers who saw her enormous stash of dope and needles, I've reached a personal conclusion.

Until the last election cycle, Republicans had a reasonable chance of becoming the permanent majority party in this country. But in the lead up to the November 2006 elections, the GOP was hijacked by extremists on the immigration issue.

Led by candidates like Arizona's J.D. Hayworth, the party essentially adopted the position of the Minutemen and similar radical groups, which promulgated a wildly exaggerated portrayal of a tidal wave of brown people overwhelming our southern border, running loose to rape, steal and murder on the streets of our cities. It is no accident that various hate groups have declared common cause with the Minutemen. Similarly, it is no accident that these various activist anti-immigration groups scarcely mention our long, undefended border with Canada.

If a person tumbles down a staircase and dies as a result, the cause of death is say, a broken neck. But whether that person slipped on a banana peel or intentionally jumped or was pushed makes all the difference between an accident, a suicide or a murder.  That, I think, is what's going on in the Anna Nicole case.

On the verge of announcing the cause of Anna Nicole's death February 8th in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, most likely from an accidental drug overdose, on Thursday, the medical examiner delayed his ruling pending the receipt of new evidence.