Like the surge in Iraq and the rescue raid in Colombia, I have no doubt that Steve’s hiring will prove to be a turning point, a seminal shift in our road to victory. I wish I could say the same for the firing of Willie Randolph as my beloved Mets continue to disappoint.

What a joy witnessing the Betancourts on hands and knees thanking God and country for that dramatic rescue. Ingrid Betancourt is clearly a friend of the West, a child of Europe. It wouldn’t surprise me if she quickly reentered politics as an ally of Uribe and an advocate of our geopolitical interests. Ingrid will surely make a staunch ally in our war against indigenous rumblings as represented by Chavez, Morales and the FARC. And McCain being down there on the day of her release was no coincidence.

The question voters need to start asking is whether Obama will continue the good fight we are waging not just in Iraq but in Latin America as well. My guess is that Obama would cut and run, abandoning our southern border to Marxists and terrorists.

Another reason to support a leader tried and tested not just in battle but in the ways of the world. I’m sorry, Wesley Clark: Community organizing (whatever that means) on the south side of Chicago does not prepare one to confront the FARC or to stage rescue raids deep in the Colombian jungle.

Iran trains, funds and arms Hamas in Israel’s south and Hezbollah in Israel’s north. Understand. It is not just Israel and the US who have beef with Iran. Sunni and Christian Lebanese are none too happy about having a Persian trained Shia militia running wild across their country. While non-fundamentalist Palestinians are none too happy about having religious fanatics, trained, funded and armed by far away Iran, grind their earthly lives into a living hell. And then there are Iran’s neighbors, our petrol allies in the Gulf, from Arabia to the Emirates, Sunni and Arab, who fear and detest Shia Persian Iran even more than we or the Israelis.

So in the event of an attack, Iran will surely find itself alone, with no friends or sympathizers save leftist Americans and weak-willed Europeans. Iran chose this path of confrontation. It was not thrust on her. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how all this plays out.

To paraphrase the late Dartmouth professor Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “a citizen is a person who, if need be, can re-create his civilization.” Here at the Harding Institute we take pride in being good citizens, and part of being a good citizen is accepting that the “other”, even if you don’t completely understand him/her, is just as real and true and worthy as yourself.

Bill O’Reilly is right, 100% right. NBC is the most insidious, self-serving American corporation there is. The mouthpiece of the government behind the government. Between David Gregory dancing the jig with Karl Rove and Tim Russert offering up Meet the Press as a White House briefing room, NBC, in the run-up to the wars, was just as pro-Bush, pro-invasion as was FOX (not that I was complaining). But now that the tides seem to be turning, with possible criminal investigations down the road, NBC has coincidentally found again its liberal soul, its outrage, dare I say shock at the last 8 years of “excess”.

You liberals are such fools. Fox News is not the propaganda channel. It’s owned by an Australian for God’s sake. NBC, owned by GE, who makes more money off one bomb dropped in Iraq than it earns off the entire franchise of “Friends”, is the channel you got to watch out for. And who are all their gas bag blowhards, like Olbermann and Matthews, screaming for this year? Barack Obama.

So I guess what I’m saying Denny is: Think twice before you join a tranny friendly, GE subsidiary-representing lobbying firm. You always struck me as having ideals and principles that you believed in and stuck to. But in this fight, you’re either with us or against us. And remember just because GE thinks Obama is going to win doesn’t mean they’re right. Because now that Obama has become the choice of the real establishment, NBC and its parent company GE, John McCain is once again finding his voice as the true outsider, the maverick he’s always been. And in this election environment, the smart money is on who can better paint himself as the “outsider”. So dear Dennis choose your sides wisely.

ps. And for all you liberal haters who have defended Dickstein & Shapiro as some sort of utopia for liberal diversity hiring policy, you might want to get a load of their clients: Indian gaming, online gaming, the smoking lobby, mercenaries in Iraq, nuclear power, etc. Come to think of it, maybe they’re not so bad!

But going to work for transgender-friendly Dickstein and Shapiro? Well, I know I said I’d let bygones be bygones and focus on the present but my friend Stanley Rubin has told me stories about that operation that would make your blood curdle. And even though I fully endorse John McCain, I remember (like I remember Amalek) the dirty tricks campaign waged against my candidate at the time, Rudy.

Dennis, come on, buddy. I know you can do better. I defended you in the Mark Foley scandal, and now you’re just perpetuating stereotypes of the GOP.  We’re going to have enough trouble this fall defeating Obama and heading off another Democrat landslide.