A REQUEST FOR SENATOR CLINTON

Dear Senator Clinton,

I'm reading about Samantha Power, the Obama adviser who made the mistake of calling you "a monster" and has now been forced to resign under pressure from your camp. And I see that John McCain's legendary temper has just shown up on videotape -- he lit into a New York Times reporter who asked him a perfectly reasonable question about his discussions with John Kerry regarding a possible bipartisan ticket in 2004 (story here; video here).

So here's what I want to ask: Given the fact that we may be living out the political equivalent of 1978 baseball season, with the Obama campaign as the Red Sox and your campaign as the Yankees, will you at least promise to do some of this to John McCain? Will you promise to rattle a few people in the McCain campaign -- especially the candidate -- the way you're rattling the Obama people, to hector them as relentlessly as you're hectoring Senator Obama until they make dumb mistakes?

Or are you going to live up to your husband's prediction that if you two are the nominees, it will be "the most civilized election in American history" because the two you "like and respect each other" so much?

In other words, if we're going to pick you because you know how to fight, are you going to save a little fight for your real opponent?

Oh, and you could start now.