The last time a short billionaire with an ego to match his checkbook ran for President, he helped elect Bill Clinton. So I’m intrigued by Michael Bloomberg running in 2008.

I’ll feel different if polls show he hurts Democrats more than Republicans, of course.

But, really, Bloomberg’s whole message is a sham.

Elect me, he says, to stop the partisan bickering in Washington. It’s time the parties started working together to solve our problems.

Sounds great. But, what he calls partisan bickering, I call big differences on big issues.

When Democrats and Republicans disagree – on whether to bring the troops home from Iraq or whether to put more money or less money into the Wake County schools – there ought to be a fight about it. A hell of a fight and a lot of partisan bickering.

Bloomberg, like Ross Perot, wants to pretend there is some high-minded answer to our problems that everybody can agree on.

That’s typical from people who are so rich they’ve forgotten what it’s like to hear somebody tell them no.

But it’s contrary to everything in this country’s history since Thomas Jefferson and John Adams squared off.

Let’s hear it for partisan bickering.

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