So in HTML6.1 we are left with span and a. If you're going that far, why keep <a>? <span href="url"> is clear enough. One element to rule them all, one element to...never mind.
Hmm... To paraphrase one saying: every markup language can be reduced by one element, and in every markup language there is at least one element with the wrong semantics. So: every markup language can be reduced to one element with the wrong semantics. Regards, Rimantas -- http://rimantas.com/