AS YOU MAY know from MSNBC’s Normandy-style ad campaign, Phil Donahue, the man who practically invented the gutter genre of talk television, who paved the way for Oprah and the rest, he of the bulging eyes, concerned hand gestures, and sensitive male persona has entered the fray of nightly political talk on cable. For the last three nights, I watched. I watched, so you didn’t have to.

Monday