Jokes aside, the world seems closer to midnight than ever. “I am living at the Villa Borghese,” wrote Henry Miller in the opening line to Tropic of Cancer. “There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.”

It’s a beautiful day today in New York.

Christopher Albritton has some thoughts on where we're heading.  We'll almost certainly be at war tomorrow.  Here's hoping Gary Hart and many others are wrong.

Republicans in the Senate have asked Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell about his re-election plans in 2004. The former Democrat, who crossed over to the good guys back in 1995, has not made it clear whether he will or will not run for another term.

Republicans hope he will, if only to scare off prospective Democrats who might have eyes on a potentially winnable seat for them. Rep. Mark Udall has said that he would be interested in running for that seat, and some Democrats in the Rocky Mountain State remain convinced that former Sen. Gary Hart has his eyes set more on running for the Senate seat than on running for president.

"If you're Hart, would you rather raise $10 million for a Senate run or five or six times that to run for the presidential nomination?" asks a Democratic National Committee delegate from Colorado. "Some of us think he'll run for either if he thinks he can pull in the money."

The American Prowler has an interesting theory. 

Also, for those wondering why there's been so little news on Senator Hart in the last few days, its because he's decided to put off any announcement until the war is over (or, presumably, when its clear it will be going on for a while).  A lot of folks are saying this is a cop-out, and that he should be out speaking out against the war once it starts.  These people are ignoring his message though.  His main concern with war now is that we aren't ready in the homeland.  Once the war starts, its kind of too late for anything to be done about that.  We'll see what happens.  If the action isn't done in a week or two, I'm sure we'll see him speak up.