EMAIL OF THE DAY:

I just had a thought the last couple of weeks that your column today reminded me of. Is it just me, or is the constant Dem and MSM whining about every issue starting to have a "boy who cried wolf" effect? The whole Cheney shooting outrage has become laughable. They're this furious because of a few hour delay in an announcement? Obviously, the Dems are just stamping their feet and threatening to take their ball and go home, only to now realize that we have had their ball since 1994. They will bitch and complain about something every day, no matter how trivial, for the simple reason that Bush is still in office. At some point, doesn't the rest of America notice?

Excellent points all. Democrats who once raised legitimate and historically crucial questions about, say, civil rights, actually seem to believe Cheney's hunting experience rises to the same level of importance. Not surprising, actually. Today's liberal left hasn't had an original thought in at least three decades. Their template for any issue related to government integrity? Watergate. Their protypical Republican with executive power? Nixon. Their framework for thinking about any use of American military force? Viet Nam. And so the list goes, and grows. Watching leading Democrats demand an independent prosecutor for "the Cheney shooting" brings to mind Peter Sellers' legendary question (as Clousseau): "Do you have a lee-sahnce [license] for your minkey [monkey]?" We laugh at clowns not only for their painted faces or their loss of balance. We laugh at their earnest cluelessness. If we stop to think, we know the actor behind the makeup is pretending. Instinctively we know the Democrats aren't. We laugh, yet in some strange way it hurts and the pain is America's. The vitality of two-party politics goes into steep decline when one party thrives on malignance. A friend recently asked if I had had any second thoughts about the political shift I declared in my essay Leaving the Left. Not in the least, I replied. Yet on occasion I am simply embarrassed for what has become of the grand party of Humphrey and Harry Truman. This isn't nostalgia for good-old-days long gone; it's really a matter of favoring a fair match. I often find myself rooting for a referee to step in and stop the fight, in the same way I want a badly bloodied boxer to be spared gratuitious blows to the head. I've no sympathy for the wacked-out, anti-American left, but something akin to sportsmanship makes me wish they would at least bring out their best athlete. Then it occurs: Perhaps their best boxers are the pathetic characters who walk into the political ring every day, slinking away after making humorless morons of themselves yet again: Kennedy, Reid, Pelosi, Biden, Schumer, Durbin. My Republican friends love this, and I understand why: it makes them look good by comparison. But the GOP of today is looking less and less like the party of Reagan; that's not a good thing. And so, while I have no hint of nostalgia for the liberal left I do find it harder by the day to get very excited about the big government conservativism of Hastert and Frist (too often aided and abetted by George W. Bush).

THE VIRTUE CROWD CROWS: Leon Panetta, a decent guy, is shocked and stunned and appalled about the apparent lack of adult supervision of Mr. Dick Cheney. Panetta, who if I recall was Clinton's chief of staff during the stained blue dress era, thinks a proper White House should be run with more, um, decorum.

"I have a sense they have basically allowed the vice president to run his own show in the White House, and for whatever reason, the vice president is not accountable to the rest of the White House or to the president," Panetta said. "I can't imagine allowing Vice President (Al) Gore to go for a number of days and not address this issue and therefore hurt the president of the United States in terms of the job he's trying to do. The first priority in the White House is not the vice president. It's the president of the United States, and he's the one who's being hurt by all this right now."

Oh, really. Show me a single public opinion survey that shows Bush is being "hurt" by the shooting contretemps. Bull feathers. Ordinary Americans (defined as those who neither hate Bush with all their guts nor think he's Jesus's younger brother) are mostly wondering what's with David Gregory and is it possible he's taken to adjusting his own medication?

Some warned that the incident threatens to gel as a metaphor for the Bush administration, much as Monica Lewinsky's dress became wedded in the public mind with Clinton. "The 28-gauge shotgun looks like the icon for Vice President Cheney," said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "There are things that happen, images that emerge in the course of presidency that somehow come to define it," Baker said.

See, I agree that Cheney's situation speaks volumes for this administration — for sure. Here's where I depart from his critics. I find myself hoping Bush will find a way to promote his vice president. Like, could they exchange jobs, if only for a month or two. Anything to keep the rabid moonbat left howling.

CHENEY: Way I see it, the veep possesses a skill set that was unknown to most of the country until this week. Actually I want to see him spend more time hunting. In the spirit of crossing the partisan divide, here are a few I want to see included in Dick Cheney's next hunting party: Harry Belafonte, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Dick Durbin, Chuckie Schumer, Barbara Boxer....