Listen up Dems! Karl Rove just fired on your Fort Sumter. You now exactly where he stands with you and it isn't a house united. You also now know the weapons he will use and if you do not respond clearly, coherently, agressively and determinedly you will lose in a bloodbath of recriminations.

Don't count, Sen Reid, on Bush continuing to throw balls. No team ever won being walked home through nine innings. And besides, Karl Rove yesterday in NH didn't throw balls, he through for your head.

Don't count on the media, mainstream, leftstream or otherwise. They are not your friends. They are friends of the schoolyard bully, because that bully knows how to attract a crowd and crowds bring revenue. Ann Coulter exists for the fact she attracts viewers who whether they hate or love her add up to Neilson numbers. The media is not left wing it is profit wing. The fact many of us liberals do not understand this is why the administration crows that they don't have to deal with reality as they make their own. They created the liberal media myth and they control the debate; while nothing about the media is liberal, unless you count sexual innuendo and fart jokes.

The only thing you Democratic leaders have is the determination and willingness to stand up to bullies, boldly and without regret, and even more important to Destand up for something no matter how risky, with equal stubborn boldness confidence and no sense of regret.

George Bush sold a disasterous war on promises and assurances no intelligent person could ever have accepted, but he and his minions did so with such over the cliff certainty the people bought it, and so did most of you.

You need to learn the lesson here is not to revel in his misfortunes but to stand up equally bold for initiatives that we already can be assured can't possibly end up as bad as five years of Bush.

Here's your start. Take what Rove has just thrown in your face, and through it right back at him and his "boss" with equal measure. I'll get you started.

Rove: "The administration has no excuses for Iraq."

Dems: "This administration has had nothing but excuses for Iraq!"

Then prepare the list for the talking heads. Include in your answers Abu Graib, Hadifa, the war will pay for itself, civil war, the list goes on and there is plenty of source material. Just google Iraq, George Bush and the rest is done for you.

Rove: "Dems like Murtha and Kerry will always cut and run"

Dems: "No Democrat has ever cut and run, nor shirked the call of duty! Not Wilson, not Roosevelt, not Lyndon Johnson. If you want to know who shirks the call of duty in times of war or peril ask George National Guard Bush and Dick I had more important things to Do Cheney."

Follow up with pointing out that the admin's only true war hero, Colin Powell, was ignored and booted by these draft dodging incompetents.

Rove: Dems believe in tax and spend.

Dems: No Congress has ever wasted as much of your tax dollars on pork barrell payoffs to their crooked lobbyists than this band of Republican crooks!"

Follow up with: We believe in fair taxation! All Americans know that to preserve our peace, protect our shores, and care for the common good, taxes must be paid. But the debt must be shared fairly not for the benefit of the wealthy few at the expense of the hard working many.

We have the largest deficit and debt in American history. If they Republican Congress is letting the wealthiest of the tax hook for the debt, guess who they want to pay for it?

Well, there you go Dems. Its not the end all, but it's a start. Now quit playing in this administration's fake reality sandbox, put away the anti-burning flag amendments, the false peaens to racist evangelists, and muddy mutterings about gay marriage and abortion and get back to the center where what matters is the pocket book and the lives of American soldiers overseas. The next time some media-idiot asks about gay flag burning immigrants coming to America for abortions confront them about why they don't believe Americans dying overseas while their parents are drowning in debt back home isn't the real question we should be talking about.

Finally, after you've decked Karl Rove, don't be afraid to stand up and declare that a Democratic Congress has a plan for ending the Iraq insurgancy and bringing the troops home in less time than they've been gone. Put forth a 3 year plan with milestones and initiatives, but don't worry, nothing you could offer could sound more ridgiculous now than "I don't see how we would need to be there more than six months" or "This war will easily pay for itself with the oil revenues we steal from them." If challenged declare that any administration or Congress of a nation so strong and great as ours that can't assure its people it can end a conflict in a middling third world country within three years does not deserve to be in charge of anything.

Now go get em

That was beautiful! I have just one child right now, who never lets me forget about seatbelts, but like you there are those days, its just that instead of Sinatra, I long for locking myself in the garage with smokes, a half pint of vodka and the Dead Kennedys.