No death wish, as far as I know *

Last night, I was all shock, disgust and, finally anger.

Sen. Clinton's reference to the RFK assassination -- a chilling thing considering that the Secret Service was sufficiently troubled by the number of threats leveled against her opponent to start his protective detail more than a year ago -- was even more crass than I'd ever thought her capable of. And I thought she was capable of a lot. (I'm with Gail Collins of the New York Times on this, who months ago contrasted "The Audacity of Hope" with "The Audacity of Audacity.")

I slept on my rage. It had cooled enough that I gave a wry smile when I read David Rees' take on it: "She has a point: June is a great month for political assassinations. Why drop out of the race before all the assassins have had their say?" Indeed, let the process work itself out.

And then John Eskow's: "The Fat Lady has not only sung; she has showered, changed from her sequined gown into jeans, air-kissed the conductor, and already gone back to the hotel, where she's lying in a bathtub, drinking wine and daydreaming about her next gig."

Or Firedoglake: "She was signaling superdelegates and primary voters to pick her because she's less likely to get shot."

And maybe, just maybe, she actually heard the echo of the shot after she fired it. Here's how she looked when she issued what the Times called "one of those tedious non-apology apologies in which it sounds like the person who is being offended is somehow at fault: 'I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.' If?"

What a graceless exit.

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* Those of you who do not follow baseball so carefully may not remember Sen. Clinton's "60 Minutes" appearance in March, when she was asked about rumors among know-nothings that her opponent is a Muslim.

STEVE KROFT: You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?

HILLARY CLINTON: Of course not. I mean that's, you know, that there is no basis for that. You know, I take him on the basis of what he says, and, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that.

KROFT: You said you take Sen. Obama at his word that he's not a Muslim...

CLINTON: Right, right..

KROFT: …you don't believe that he's a Muslim.

CLINTON: No! No! Why would I? There's nothing to base that on. As far as I know.