NP: Oasis, Definitely Maybe (Rhapsody)

A friend e-mailed me about Kerry's vacillating between "Saddam was a threat" and "Saddam was not a threat," and I'll admit, he's hanging on to that middle ground with the tips of his allegedly heavily manicured fingernails. The word the Democrats aren't using often enough here is imminent. Sure, Hussein had to be considered a threat, but the question of how much of a threat should be more open.

One thing I've noticed is an absolute reluctance of anyone in Congress to say not that Bush abused the authorization he was given, but that they got duped on the imminence issue by an overeager administration, and the only way to fix that mistake is by punishing the administration with retirement.

Which isn't to say it would work, but I'd certainly be curious to see how it played out in the public.

As for imminence, I'm not exactly sure that Kerry should hitch his wagon too tightly to baseball metaphors given his affinity for the perennially disappointing Red Sox, but while the baseball metaphor for Iraq tends to be that of getting to the plate with or without a bat versus beating the pitcher over the head with that bat, I think the better one, in light of the Duelfer Report, is that the sanctions were holding a poor baserunner (Hussein) at second -- which even gives the tacit admission that he was in scoring position -- while throwing out bin Laden, or Iran, or North Korea at first.

Instead, we got caught in a rundown, so while we got the out, a much better baserunner was able to get to second base -- and again, scoring position -- in the process.

On the plus side, Libya, who was at best a threat to bunt, pulled a hamstring in the on-deck circle. It's the metaphor that keeps on giving!