From tonight’s NBC News:

Correspondent: Publicly, the White House today used (Al Gore’s) announcement to take a general swipe at Democrats.

ARI FLEISCHER: Somebody will emerge from the Democratic field who will ultimately seek to raise taxes on the American people.

(Ed. note: unlike Republicans, who only want raise taxes on the American people below a certain income level.)

Correspondent continues: Privately, White House officials admitted they had expected Gore to run, and weren’t relishing a Gore challenge, one official saying, quote, he did get five hundred thousand more votes than the President.

If Lott goes, is Don Nickles really the best person to replace him?

And isn’t it about time to pay a little more attention to the skeletons in John Ashcroft’s closet?

…that the story of Trent Lott’s third public comment that Strom Thurmond should have become president — made in October 2000 at the signing of the Spence/Warner Defense Spending Bill, and so far unreported in the major media — will hit one of the cable news networks today.

Maybe even around the same time Trent Lott is on BET, trying to explain the first two away.

If it happens, remember that you read it here first.

Update: well, it’s not going to happen exactly like this — but it does look likely to break big, and soon.

Some dissenting email, presented unedited and without comment:

Subject: Are you Republican or Democrat ? Do you really know the differences ?

Judging by the anti-Bush tone that your strips have we bet you are a DEMOCRAT . How could anyone write a political comic strip and know so little about politics ? Every person that I ve met that claims to be a Democrat I ve asked , why are you a Democrat ? The stupid answers fall into two catagories - well thats what my parents and our family is … and - I don t know … Sounds real intelligent to vote for people and not know what they even basically stand for . SCARY ! Every Republican that I ve asked , why are you a republican ? Has been able to tell me the basic principles of being a Republican and why they vote that way . My wife and I worked dilligently through high school and college holding full time jobs and at the same making good grades . Tough ? You bet it was . But we planned for the future and worked hard . We both graduated college , got corporate jobs and we climbed the ladder through dilligence , hard work and much planning only to be taxed at an a! bsolutely unfair 40 % of our salary !!! Unfair ? You bet it is ! Some how the Democrats think that because I worked hard , studied hard and carefully planned out my life to be sucessfull that I should support a grossly out of controll welfare system that actually promotes unemployment and having kids that I will be paying for !!! I will help people that really need it and that is about 50% of the people on welfare now .Republicans like my wife and I are Americas tax base . Democrats voting for tax hikes and lots of government programs at my expense are the tax burden . Please learn the basic principles of being both a Democrat and a Repubican . Politics is not about looks or peoples individual personalities but what the party stands for . A Democrat once told me -You just have to know how to use the system … My reply ? I am the system your referring to asshole !!!

I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh explain to his audience, which is presumably comprised of mortal beings, why they should consider health care a privilege, and not a right. I’ve heard him explain to his audience, which presumably contains its share of low- and middle-income workers, why tax cuts for the wealthy benefit all Americans.

But I can’t wait to hear him try to sell this:

As the Bush administration draws up plans to simplify the tax system, it is also refining arguments for why it may be necessary to shift more of the tax load onto lower-income workers.

Economists at the Treasury Department are drafting new ways to calculate the distribution of tax burdens among different income classes, which are expected to highlight what administration officials see as a rising tax burden on the rich and a declining burden on the poor. The White House Council of Economic Advisers is also preparing a report detailing the concentration of the tax burden on the affluent and highlighting problems with the way tax burdens are calculated for the poor.

It’s the “Lucky Duckies” thing unfolding.. But you know, even as I wrote this cartoon, there was still part of me thinking, nah, they wouldn’t really…would they?

I mean — they’re going to seriously start arguing that what this country really needs is an upper income tax cut coupled with a middle- and lower-income tax increase?

And not only that — but they’re talking about it a week and a half before Christmas?

Talk about tone deaf. This one’s barely out of the gate, and already they’re tying themselves in knots:

Answering critics who say the working poor do face high taxes because they pay high Social Security payroll taxes, outgoing White House economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey told the AEI tax forum that the 12.4 percent Social Security levy should not be considered when tax burdens are calculated. Lindsey said the Social Security tax is ultimately returned to the taxpayer as a benefit.

(snip)

When administration officials pushed the need to create private investment accounts to supplement Social Security, they specifically warned that taxes paid into Social Security would not necessarily be returned unless the system was reformed.

William W. Beach, an economist at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said he was sympathetic to Lindsey’s argument that the Social Security tax is not really a tax. But, he said, it was a dangerous argument for a Republican to make.

“Do I allow defense spending to offset my income taxes since I like to be defended? Do I allow road taxes to offset my profits taxes because I use the roads?” he asked. “If you do start down that road, it’s hard to see anything as taxes.”