Playing dirty in the Dem camp.

It was a spectacular weekend in Baltimore, weather-wise, after a very strange summer in which the climate was more like that of the Caribbean than a mid-Atlantic state. Every day, it seemed, the forecast called for thundershowers and usually the goofy meteorologists on local tv were proven correct. But there was a twist: Like Nevis, say, sheets of rain would fall for 15 minutes and then the sun would shine. And the pattern repeated itself over and over.

Given the early September dateline, the sudden change was kind of creepy. Take Saturday, for example. By all accounts, it was a swell day. First things first: I awoke at about five a.m., hauled the trash out to the curb of our lawn (for some reason the garbage-men?sorry, sanitation engineers?here arrive on our street just before eight, as opposed to who-knows-when on Wednesdays).

Later in the morning, the boys and I tossed around the pigskin for a half hour or so in the back yard, and when they went to nearby Towson with Mrs. M for a spree at Barnes & Noble and a lunch from Taco Bell, I retreated to the third floor and combed the Drudge Report. Later, I watched the Bosox cream Roger Clemens and the Yanks, and had to draw the shades to keep out the sunshine. Finally, that evening Junior and I saw the mildly entertaining Buffalo Soldiers at a nearby theater and arrived home just in time to see the Orioles polish off the Seattle Mariners.

Just one problem: As Bruce Springsteen sang memorably on "Nothing Man" from The Rising, Saturday's sky was an "unbelievable blue," just like that stretch of days two years ago. The memories are overwhelming. On Sept. 9, 2001, our family was in Nantucket, having brunch at my brother Jeff's house, the day after his daughter Zoe was married to longtime beau Andy. In the early afternoon we took a low-flying puddle-jumper back to Manhattan, and minutes before landing at Newark Intl., I nudged the boys and pointed out the World Trade Center, brilliantly visible and an indication that we were almost home.

Who knew that'd be the last time we'd witness the familiar aerial view? In hindsight, it seems more vivid than the flight my wife and I took from Santiago to Buenos Aires a dozen years ago; we were both spellbound when we passed the Andes Mountains.

I still get goosebumps when watching videos of Bobby Kennedy (assassinated by a terrorist, as you youngsters can look up in history books) appearing at the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. RFK was wracked with emotion as he waited out a 22-minute standing ovation, and ended his brief remarks about his recently slain brother by quoting, at sister-in-law Jackie's suggestion, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The lines are familiar: "When he shall die/Take him and cut him out in little stars/And he will make the face of heaven so fine/That the world will be in love with night/And pay no worship to the garish sun."

The sun couldn't be more "garish" in these days leading up to the second anniversary of 9/11, and I'd prefer a week of steady rain.

I thought President Bush's Sunday evening address to the nation about Iraq and terrorism was mostly successful, although standing alone at a White House podium clearly isn't his strong suit. Undoubtedly he'd be criticized by Democratic vultures and newspaper columnists?which happened anyway?but had Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld been standing by his side, the visual effect would've been more powerful.

Nevertheless, it was what Bush said that matters. There were two key passages in the speech, both of which raised the ante of the administration's military plan. First, he said: "The terrorists have a strategic goal. They want us to leave Iraq before our work is done. They want to shake the will of the civilized world. In the past, the terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge. In this, they are mistaken."

Later: "[F]or America, there will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities."

I'd have guessed the Democratic presidential candidates, debating again on Tuesday night, would've hedged on comments about Bush's speech, waiting to see what the polls reported. Wrong. Howard Dean, who continues to run an innovative campaign, most recently demonstrated by his appearance with the embattled Gray Davis in California?the only contender to press flesh with that mass of kryptonite?was quick to belittle the president. Dean's instantaneous response, directed at the "Remember 2000" brigades: "A 15-minute speech does not make up for 15 months of misleading the American people."

Sen. John Edwards, who announced on Sunday that he won't run for reelection in North Carolina and will instead continue with his 50-1 shot of winning the nomination, was also quick on the trigger. Edwards, who apparently has spent months in Iraq rather than greeting small crowds in New Hampshire and Iowa, was just as strident as Dean: "What tonight's speech called for was for the president to demonstrate some courage of his own. Instead, he retreated to the same rhetoric about progress and peace that do not match the reality occurring every day in Iraq. It is a country consumed with chaos, not a shining example of progress in the war against terrorism."

Maybe John-Boy missed something, but Bush has always said "the war against terrorism" won't be short in duration. He might get the point if one day in the near future Washington, D.C. is attacked by al Qaeda kooks. Scratch that: He'll be at some bullroast in Des Moines.

Finally, if there were any doubt that the New York Times, after Howell Raines' welcome departure, would cease its role as a mouthpiece for the Democratic National Committee, its Sept. 8 editorial dispelled that false hope. The paper wrote: "President Bush urged the American people to stay the course in Iraq last night. We wish he had announced a course correction?

"Washington has been compelled to recognize that it cannot succeed in securing Iraq alone and badly needs much more United Nations help. Yet the administration still resists paying the necessary price of accepting broad U.N. authority over rebuilding Iraq's institutions and economy."

Contrast that blather with the Washington Post's Monday editorial, which concluded: "If the United States retains control over military forces in Iraq while an evolving Iraqi government reports to a U.N. administrator, Americans would lose little in the way of influence while gaining much in international support and credibility for their disavowal of imperial ambitions. It may be that France, wedded more to its anti-American leadership than to a responsible role in the Middle East, would block even such a reasonable compromise. But such a compromise should be the administration's goal."

I think the Post puts too much stock in the impotent United Nations, but at least its editors realize there's more at stake here than electing John Kerry or Howard Dean, which appears to be the Times' main goal.

Wells to Play for Red Sox in 2004?

I won't lay down even a dime on the Oct. 7 recall election in California. Unless I'm badly mistaken, the results will be a complete surprise, and it's even money whether Gray Davis survives, or is replaced by Cruz Bustamante or Arnold Schwarzenegger. The odds are crummy for a recreational political gambler.

On the other hand, I did win $10 in predicting that David Wells would prevent the Red Sox from sweeping last weekend's three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Wells, the Bad Yankee who'd been shelled in recent outings was obviously auditioning for other teams in anticipation of being let go by the Yanks at the end of this season. The only surprise was that Jeff Suppan, the Bosox's July pick-up from the Pirates who's been a nightmare on the mound for his new team, pitched so well. I guess there's a lot of relief in New York that Joe Torre's squad entered Monday's action two and a half games ahead of the Sox in the A.L. East with just a few weeks remaining on the schedule.

But who didn't relish the panic, both from George Steinbrenner and the local media, that Boston's Curse might somehow be lifted in 2003? Could be, and I believe the Sox have a 50-50 shot of reaching the playoffs, especially as the Mariners and Royals?their rivals for the wild card?play more competitive teams than Boston, but I'm not holding my breath. Superstition. The only benefit from Wells' pitching gem was that I could finally shave off the scraggly, Dylan-like whiskers I'd grown in the last week. When the Sox win, my razor is left untouched in the morning.

Hey, as they say in the Major Leagues, there's a lot of baseball left. The Sox might well be shut out of the post-season once again, but it's still remarkable that in the second week of September, the team still has a chance.

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