Susan Estrich has an incredible column online today in which she writes that Democrats have been nice for far too long, and it's time for some hardball:

You have to fight fire with fire, mud with mud, dirt with dirt.

The trouble with Democrats, traditionally, is that we're not mean enough. Dukakis wasn't. I wasn't. I don't particularly like destroying people. I got into politics because of issues, not anger. But too much is at stake to play by Dukakis rules, and lose again.

That is the conclusion Democrats have reached. So watch out. Millions of dollars will be on the table. And there are plenty of choices for what to spend it on.

I'm not promising pretty.

I guess not. Talk about writing a poorly-timed column, when this is in the news today:

A shot apparently was fired at the Republican Party headquarters in downtown Huntington while President Bush's speech accepting the GOP nomination for president was being televised.

No one was hurt in the 10:30 p.m. Thursday incident.

"We heard a pop. We realized it was a gunshot and we were kind of scared," said Gayle Adkins, a volunteer of Huntington.

Others said they didn't see anything except for some of the banners jumping as the bullet whizzed over their heads. Police could not locate where the bullet landed.

"It is pretty ridiculous someone would do this at a gathering that doesn't hurt anybody," said volunteer Amanda Beach of Huntington.

The shooting won't intimidate them, many said. "It has made us want to work harder," said Brendon Childers of Huntington.

Now obviously, this isn't what Estrich meant, but still, after a year that's seen the Bush AWOL issue worked to death, Fahrenheit 9/11, the New York Times' biased pieces, assorted potshots by AP and Reuters, Chris Matthews shouting down guests, and other general nastiness, it's a good thing most on the left are frightened by guns--because that would seem to be next level of escalation for the "Coalition of Wild-Eyed" and their feverish collective case of Bush Derangement Syndrome.