Oi! Away From Those Lifeboats!

Despite Mr. Marshall's pleas for the Democrats to stop panicking, you know the conventional wisdom is flowing against you, when the Times prefaces its coverage of your attack by noting that being feisty is just what your advisers have pressed for.

In our humble opinion, the Dems have yet to realise that while candidates and their campaigns have to use campaign spokesmen for the pretty nasty stuff, and 527s for the unspeakable stuff, the candidates should say some fairly snide stufff themselves, and no-one minds it too much. We don't think this is just, as Slate notes, an Edwards thing, or even O'Reilly's leading "so is Dick Cheney the attack dog equivalent of Gore" (shan't link, you can't make us). We think they forgot that a lot of people liked Dean because he didn't simper, and seemed to remember that politics is about arguments.

But hey, we're biased, just like we are on the subject of dentists that don't do what they're told. Bad, Dentist! Bad!

Apparently there was quite a tasty fracas near our ooffice while we were working late. It's very frustrating being kept inside while all the other children are playing (that's referring to reporters, not anarchists, cyber-dudes). Still talking about the fuzz, note the fibs about evil protestors are still going, as Mr. Curtis from Slate notes.

A lieutenant, who would give only his last name, Johnson, told me one of the protesters was carrying a vial of creamy liquid with the word "POLICE" scrawled in Magic Marker.

On balance though, we've been quite taken by the politeness of the rozzers round here, although we will bow to those who've been able to watch them arrest people apparently at random. The NY Press notes the dubious logic leading up to the creation of the Wessside holding pen, and has a fair shake at coining "Gitmo On The Hudson", although the AP seems to have the more thorough account of its conditions.