I had an enjoyable pair of encounters with a young guy on the street today flacking for John Kerry. My first encounter came up lame in the response category, but I had an opportunity to redeem myself. When walking the sidewalks of downtown D.C., an unkempt young fellow with a clipboard approached me and asked: “Excuse me sir, can I have a few minutes of your time to help John Kerry today?” My lame response was: “Not in a million years.” Upon returning from lunch, though, he gave me another opportunity, so I asked: “Yes? How can I help?” He began to explain that he was accepting contributions for the DNC. I responded, “Can I also help with fake voter registration? What about helping make false claims of voter intimidation? Are those opportunities still available?” I’ve got to give the kid credit, he took it in stride and without any bitterness, simply responding that they don’t do that sort of thing. Would that that were true. My lingering question from the encounter, though is “Why on earth is the DNC schilling for bucks on the street corners? Run out of trial lawyers to front your operation?”