I smell desperation in the air and this time it's not liberal...

Dick Cheney finally brought the administration's argument for re-election to its logical conclusion yesterday. All these terror warnings and chest-thumpings and war drum-beating climaxed in a town hall meeting yesterday in Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Cheney:

It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States

So it's all come down to this campaign message: Elect us or die!

I don't know about you, but it doesn't seem that threatening voters outright is the fastest route to victory. Everyone knows you to defeat a bully you have to stand up to him and the Kerry-Edwards campaign has been standing up enough to give this smug doggie-punching bully to have yet another heart attack. Mr. Edwards:

This statement by the vice president of the United States was intended to divide us. It was calculated to divide us on an issue of safety and security for the American people. It's wrong and it's un-American.

The glove are not only off, but they have been lit on fire and held up to the Republicans' testicles. A gruesome image, for sure.

But that, my friends, is how I like to play hardball.