Mitch McConnell, in the past a rabble rouser, could have phoned in his speech for the passion and excitement it generated. Mostly a diatribe against Nancy Pelosi and Washington liberals in general, McConnell sounded like he is trying to convince himself that he is running unopposed.

His polling data must show that gas prices are the voters’ biggest concern because he hammered on the Democrats for not supporting offshore drilling. He told the crowd that the GOP is the party that will lead us out of high fuel costs, if only those high gas lovin’ Dems would get out of the way. Really.

The Republicans dug out Christmas play shepherd costumes and paraded as “Arab sheiks”. Considering President Bush’s warm relationship with real Arab sheiks the whole thing was pretty lame.

The brave, but not too bright, Arab wannabes in their very hot costumes ventured over to the Democratic side of the pavilion and sparked a short confrontation with a couple of Democratic partisans, that, thankfully, didn’t come to blows. The partisans on the Democratic side took exception to their point of view and blocked their path into Democratic territory. The sheiks turned around and went back the way they came.

Crisis averted.