We misjudged your motives ... and your politics.

We love the Internet. It's the fulfillment of a childhood dream of finding the world's biggest library, then wandering from stack to stack, from book to book, factoid to fact, idea to idea, in a never-ending voyage of learning.

And we love the Blogosphere's informality, its immediacy, the instantaneous ability to correct mistakes, the hearty democratic disdain for hierarchical, elitist opinion-monopolies. And we enjoy the Blogosphere's seeming (but probably illusory) personal touch. It's the Global Village, by golly!

But then you take one step off the Web's continental shelf and you're suddenly plunged to the depths ... you know, those "there be monsters" deeps that the National Geographic used to show as frightening blackness filled with wriggling, twisting phosphorescent creatures and otherworldly shapes.

That's a little how we felt yesterday when we pointed out that while reality TV star Jessica Simpson declined an invitation to hobnob with GOP bigwigs and President Bush at a big-bucks Republican fund-raiser Thursday night, she DID have dinner a few weeks earlier in Santa Fe with Gov. Bill Richardson while shooting a movie in New Mexico.

OK, by titling the post "The Only Poll That Counts," we were trying to make a teasing political point -- that the actress apparently prefers dining with Democrats.

We had linked to a story on The Drudge Report, and Drudge turned around and linked right back to our Richardson connection.

And all hell broke loose.

It caused an unprecedented rush to our ABQNews Seeker that brought down the whole system for about an hour and a half. As of this morning, there were about 38,000 hits.

It also caused a rash of angry e-mails, some of which we put up yesterday on our post -- and most of which accused us of being too dense, moronic or stupid to see the difference between a political fund-raiser and a private dinner.

Some were so angrily incoherent, though, we couldn't tell whether we were being accused of being a Republican or a Democrat. But most -- even the obscene ones -- seemed to be defending the honor, integrity and plain good sense of Miss Jessica Simpson.

We frankly didn't know at the time that Jessica Simpson had sung at President Bush's inauguration, had visited the White House at least four times, and, as her dad and manager Joe Simpson told The Associated Press yesterday, that she just "loves the heck" out of the president.

All that said, we realized this morning that we had managed -- in one little item -- to sum up much of what is wrong with contemporary journalism.

First, we glommed onto a celebrity. And whatever a celebrity does, of course, is news.

Second, we rumbled right along with the herd to chase this "story" for all it was worth. (Google News right now is linking to some 200 stories with some variation or other of headlines saying "Jessica Snubs Bush" or "Jessica Disses Dubya").

Third, we just couldn't resist journalism's stock-in-trade ... cheap irony ... and a cheap political irony, at that, paying absolutely no attention to those nuances that add up to the truth.

And finally, by continuing to yap about it this morning, we are doing what 24/7 all-news-all-the-time journalism does best: beat an issue to death.

But keep those cards and letters coming, folks ... especially those kind and thoughtful e-mails.

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