It would appear that the Democrats have not thought of an elephant and are set to go with the new meme: "strategic redeployment." That talking point was trotted out by Howard Dean yesterday, John Kerry today, and no doubt by a flotilla of pointy-headed Sunday talkers whose John Murtha Fan Club T-Shirts haven't even shrunk in the spin cycle yet.

It's all a part of the many-years-too-late strategy to develop a "specific" "plan" for winning the "war" in "Iraq." To be fair, finally and for once, the discussion from the left actually contains plan-like substance instead of gooey paeans to higher ideals and bromides about responsible leadership, such as: bringing home 50,000 National Guardsmen, development of an "over-the-horizon" anti-terrorism military response, and a reinforcing of the mission in Afghanistan.

But if we're skeptical of the Dems ability to get bulleted, boldface, specific competing ideas out there, it's maybe because Howard Dean has described the plan as "something we can coalesce around." The image of Democrats slowly seeping around their important election year idea, filling in the cracks with their nougaty, center-left goodness, isn't exactly something that defines bold leadership. Besides, we don't want to use "Democrats" as our $20,000 Pyramid clue for "Things That Coalesce." We're already using it for "Things That Fall Down and Break and Cry A Lot."— DCEIVER