1 Rat = snitch, tell tales on, betray. I've mostly heard it used to mean informing on someone (e.g. to rat someone out to the police or the teacher), so Hitchens' use of it to mean switching sides is somewhat unfamiliar to me too. - James A., UK expat.

2 Winston Churchill used "rerat" to mean betray again. . . http://www.csit.fsu.edu/~burkardt/fun/wordplay/pentagram.html "Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat." WC http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/rat

3 Irrespective, Hill's in a bit of a bind.

4 She can say "I voted for war so we could all vote against it!" Kerry's version worked with almost half of all the voters, so who knows? My magic monkeys(now Macaque free!)have some other suggestions-- (1) You all know I didn't mean it anyway! (2) I was just trying to look butch! Damn you, Naomi Wolf! (3) I blame my Jew-Bitch campaign advisor! (4) You mean that resolution was FOR WAR? (5) Diebold makes the voting pads!