Bada-bing. Ching-a-ching. Hee-haw: Here it is: "Dominic, the Italian Christmas Donkey," by Lou Monte, via the Top 101 Xmas Songs. Wanting to keep abreast of the zeitgeist (but not having HBO), I ask: Was this song played on an episode of The Sopranos or something? What else accounts for its seemingly newfound popularity on the Christmas radio airwaves? I'd somehow managed to go 35 years without ever hearing this 1967 gem, but now it's stuck in my head (as it will be in yours if you click the link above).

UPDATE: Visitors seeking the lyrics to "Dominic the Donkey" can find them here. Buon Natale!

Etc… Last Sunday's column by Thomas L Friedman of the NYT should be clipped and sent to any and all friends on the Left: [T}his war is the most important liberal, revolutionary U.S. democracy-building project since the Marshall Plan. The primary focus of U.S. forces in Iraq today is erecting a decent, legitimate, tolerant, pluralistic representative government from the ground up. I don't know if the United States and its allies can pull this off. They got off to an unnecessarily bad start. But it is one of the noblest things ever attempted abroad, and it is a moral and strategic imperative that we give it our best shot * On Howard Dean as conceited 15-year-old * On the Dennis Kucinich campaign: Yeah. They're serious. Just ask an ooky children's-story character and a host of furry woodland friends

From Best of the Web Today: Howell He Live This Down? Back in June, Salon (picking up an item from U.S. News & World Report) said that "GOP pranksters" were proving "that they are high school bullies in bad suits": Their plans for the 2004 race include sending "attack mascots" to Democratic candidate appearances to heckle and unnerve. They are proudest of their idea to send a Thurston Howell III look-alike to a John Kerry speech. Finally, we understand what this is all about. In a long profile yesterday of Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat who by the way served in Vietnam, the New York Times reports that "like Thurston Howell III, the millionaire on 'Gilligan's Island,' he calls his wife 'Lovey.' " "Sarandonistas" is the new term coined by the Politburo, which also takes Michael Moore to task on God and national anthems