Here's what I recommend:
Get a Mitsubishi. I have one in my sig (labeled "My 'Other' God Box) that I own. It's great. Mitsubishi's use Hitachi tubes (the best), so you would think, "Hey, why not just get a Hitachi?" The reason is because they're freaking expensive.
I would recommend getting a set that natively supports 720p, which mine doesn't. This is the one thing I would have liked to have looked for. If you ever play a video game on it, most display 720p nowadays, while few display 1080i. Such is life.
Also, look at how it displays worse TV signals. Much of your viewing will be non-digital, most likely, so make sure you like how that looks.
Honestly, I wouldn't even consider a Plasma or an LCD TV if I could afford one. They're just not worth it. LCDs have issues with dead pixels and ghosting, and plasma TVs have issues with DYING after 3 years or so, and are TERRIBLE with burn-in. If you leave your TV on just once with an image on it, you can basically expect to see that forever.