Let's give the evil geniuses some credit: They sat down and calculated all the angles on this Pickering recess appointment and realized that all the political talk for the next several days will be about Iowa and (as of Monday) its aftermath. Monday will also be pre-Super Bowl hype day #1. So we can talk about this until we're blue in the face and it's not going to be a big news story.

...Unless, perhaps, the Democrats defy conventional wisdom and talk about it, passionately, now in Iowa and especially next week in, yes, the very, very white state of New Hampshire.

And why not? Bush's team is given credit for playing the angles with their immigration proposal -- white soccer moms will think it's compassionate! Why can't Democrats appeal to the same instincts on the part of whites? Cross burning? New Hampshire Democrats are against it. That's a sweeping generalization, perhaps, but I'll stand by it.

Democrats need to make Daniel Swan George Bush's running mate.

(By the way, John Edwards, I think this is your area of expertise.)