There was a critical mass this week in the media, if you missed it. All of the the sudden, everybody's talking about the Clinton Cackle.

While Rush Limbaugh has been dutifully noting the Cackle for some time now (he just goes the whole hog and calls Hillary a witch with "a testicle lock-box"), and Sean Hannity actually has a "Why does Hillary Cackle?" forum, the story broke big time midweek on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And suddenly it's everywhere in the mainstream media.

There was a piece by Patrick Healy in his Times "On the Trail" column the next day, and another one by Healy devoted to the topic today, as well as a caustic reference in Frank Rich's column. Healy's columns seem to be the ones that nailed Clinton's laugh as specifically a "cackle" (Slate's John Dickerson's "bwa-ha-ha," "bray," and "caterwaul" failed to catch fire in the ether), and now the Cackle Meme is spreading through old and new media like wildfire.

Why, just this morning, the Globe's Queen of Meme, Joan Vennochi, no friend of the Dems, chose the Clinton Cackle as the theme of her Sunday sermon. While ostensibly above the fray—Vennochi poses as the superego to the Media Id while circulating its sleaze—the true purpose of the column is to pass on the Clinton Cackle Meme, pure and simple.

The blogosphere is abuzz, too. Stewart's segment coupled with Healy's piece ("real" news imitating mock-news, as is so often the case these days) struck a chord with those who couldn't quite put their finger on Clinton's unsettling sonance, and gave them license to go viral with it.

The Cackle is now being compared to the Dean Scream, wishful thinking among Hillary-haters, since it's obviously not a one-time thing, like the Scream.

I think it's more like Kerry and Edwards's coifs were in '04's Hair Wars, something superficial to mock, belittle, disparage, and derogate the candidate with. In the Kerry/Edwards case, the implication was that the candidates were effeminate. So far in this election cycle, Edwards has been called a "faggot," and dogged by accusations that he brushes his hair like a girl.

The same insinuation dogged Gore, who was said to have a "lisp" (and you know what that means) and was dubbed a "total fag" by the Nation's leading female impersonator-cum-pundit and GOP expert on fags, Ann Coulter (according to whom, Larry Craig is not one, by the way, in case you were wondering).

Hillary has also been assailed for her hair (good to know the Right has such a practiced queer eye), but obviously it doesn't work to point out her femininity. Instead she's decried as a lesbian, and a calculating, caterwauling, cackling witch with Bubba's balls in a lock-box.

The nomination and the election will, of course, hinge on such issues as the candidates' coifs and cackles. No irony intended.

Personally, I'm revenge-voting. I want to inflict the maximum partisan pain and suffering with my vote. And the choice couldn't be more obvious. And Hillary is as competent and fit for the job as the next guy. And after Bush, the presumption or pretension of standards deserves a good cackle, anyway.

So I say, cackle away, Hillary! She who laughs last laughs best!