Is April the cruelest month? If you're a Republican, you might think your party was breaking apart, starting from the top. If you're on the left, you might wonder why the opposition isn't making more of this moment. Today we go outside the box to get out of the political boxing ring.

We start with ELLEN WILLIS author of, "Don't Think: Smile!" and Director of NYU Journalism School's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program. She and Laura talk about the "Bush Women" and how the right's hijacking the work of the Feminist movement. Then AMIRA HASS, the pioneering Israeli journalist and author of "Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege" and "Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land." Plus GREG PALAST, investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and MARK LEVINE, host of "The Inside Scoop," on WAGE AM-1200, on the latest news. And ELAINE PETROCELLI, owner of San Francisco's Book Passage bookstore, on what's flying off the shelf.