Very rarely do politicians act boldly or speak in ways that are moving, much less honest.  In that light, today's statement by Jerry Sanders, Mayor of San Diego and a Republican, is nothing short of extraordinary.

You can read more background here.  But you really ought to watch the video.

Now that Congress has passed the timetable language, what should the Democrats do once Bush's expected veto comes?  If they're smart, they'll use a vise — the tool designed to hold objects while you work on them.  Within the workings of this indispensible shop tool is the beauty of the Democratic strategy for getting our troops out of Iraq — and for a Democratic sweep in 2008.

My dad (old-school Republican) has a bench vise in his workshop.  One end of the vise is a stationary jaw, bolted to the workbench.  That would be the President.  We all know the character of the man well enough to reasonably predict that he's not going to budge on Iraq.

The opposing jaw is moveable;  its distance from the stationary jaw is adjusted with a turn of the screw. That moving jaw represents the Democrats, who are trying to change policy.  

Place something between these two jaws, tighten the vise enough, and you immobilize the object.  That would be the Republicans up for re-election in 2008 — poor saps.  

Now all we have to do now is turn the screw.  

Read how after the jump.

A time for modesty...

a time to GLOAT.  

Well...until November 9th, at least.

Look, I can understand why some of you are already hyped about 2008.  You may have discovered a new love, you're swooning, and you need to tell the world about it.  Presidential races are, of course, a big deal, and after 6 years of Curious George, we are all hoping to anoint our own Man In the Yellow Hat (or Woman) to clean up the mess.  And it's reasonable to believe that after 8 years of such failure, American voters will be itching for a real president in their 44th as an antidote to the phoniness of the 43rd.  But this excitement is misplaced, and way premature.  All these presidential diaries...wow, straw poll here, news poll there, conjecture here, CW there ... .

Please, just make it stop!!!

So, herein I go into the political calculus to try and explain why I wish y'all would lay off the presidential "horserace" for awhile -- at least until there is one -- and get hyped about this year's elections:

The recent conversations here regarding alternative fuels got me to thinking about my years growing up in Iowa, and all of the wonderful virtues we heard in the traditional media about gasohol.  I'm no expert on fuels, and I was certainly never cut out to be a farmer. But as the grandchild of family farmers and a budding artist, it would have been next to impossible for me to have spent so much time on the farm and not noticed a few things.  So now that I'm (ostensibly) grown up and I see every four years how the tired, manufactured issue of gasohol makes a mockery of the Iowa caucuses -- and by extension, my home state and the entire presidential nominating process -- well, it just burns my butt.  

More on why gasohol is bullshit for family farmers...

Just think what having the 2008 Democratic Convention in New Orleans would do for morale in New Orleans.  

Just think what having the 2008 Democratic Convention in New Orleans would do for morale among Democrats.

And just think what having the 2008 Democratic Convention in New Orleans would do for morale among Republicans.