The War Is Over...

Global warming has been checked. The flora and fauna of land and sea are safe and sound.

No one is retiring to bed hungry; their education, their health care, their jobs, their retirement, their quality of life...all secured.

The Congress is once again in the compassionate hands of Democrats.

George, Laura and Barney have been dispatched back to Crawford.

The Governator has returned to L.A. where he belongs. Welcome home, Arnold; we missed you.

So little is left to achieve that yesterday progressives had surplus political energy -- and surplus political capital -- to expend in a street rally on behalf of an aggressively partisan political candidate who came under the fire of an equally aggressive political attack launched by erstwhile opponents via a medium almost no one watches.

The irony is that the cable television assault ads knocking Santa Monica councilmember Kevin McKeown almost certainly will boost his candidacy. This is probably contrary to the intended outcome, but you never know. Since he among the possible victors next Tuesday is the one who offers the least threat to the fortunes of the hotels, you almost wonder if they aren't attempting to engineer his reelection deliberately by mugging him.

Think of how much worse off the hotels would be if they had to overcome a more subtle political opponent with skill and clout and the will to give them a real fight. Even in the leadership vacuum of Santa Monica, however, his political skills are such that his councilmates -- who having served so long with him presumably know him best -- hold McKeown in such low esteem they took the almost unheard-of step of denying him an all-but-pro-forma turn as mayor.