If April's the cruelest month, this year's should be a humdinger. Short takes on "one thing" or "another" through the mid-March Lion-to-Lamb transition.

My Fellow Democrats

Good Lord. Elliot Spitzer. God Damn America. From "honored to be on the same podium," to mud-wrestling over Super Delegates. From tears in my eyes to stuck in my craw. Only Obama's Philadelphia speech on race brightens the month so far. Are we trying to GIVE this one away?

John and Joe

While it's nice to see the red guys nominate a relative liberal for a change, I don't what bothers me more: McCain forgetting that Iranian Shiites don't play well with the Sunni Al-Quaeda, or Joe Liebermann doing his best to help him remember. Say it ain't so, Joe.

War and Occupation

We begin our sixth year with troops in Iraq this month. With things going "well" militarily, the American death toll approaches 4,000, with little or no signs of progress on the political front. George

In a grand effort to convince our "friends" in the Middle East that "we come in peace," the Decider dispatches as his ambassador-of-good-will . . . who else? Dick Cheney. This after vetoing legislation banning torture, and doing his best to secure retroactive immunity for those who may (or may not) have assisted with illegal wiretapping of your phone. Dick

From Spread-Democracy-Central in Baghdad, the Vice President, reminded by a reporter that most Americans think the invasion of Iraq was a terrible idea, quips, "So?" Dick also tells us, that Bush, the "wartime President," compares well to . . . Abraham Lincoln. The better angels of our nature, weep.

HBO

On the brighter side of the ledger, if you're suffering from withdrawal from The Wire, up to here with American Idol, and in sore need a shot of world-class television, do not miss Tom Hanks' extraordinary HBO production of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning John Adams. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are superb as the Adamses. David Morse plays a Washington that you'd be proud to freeze with, and Tom Wilkinson's Ben Franklin may well be better than the original. Sundays. Be There.

John Adams

Adams said it in 1772. HBO posted it on its website in 2008. "Trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." Put that in your unitary executive and smoke it.