Is Air Conditioning the Reason the South Is Conservative?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Gitmo Split

The Supreme Court decision striking down the military tribunals to try prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as a violation of the Geneva Convention comes as Americans are evenly divided over the handling of those being held there.

In a FOX News poll taken just before the ruling, 43 percent say it's fair to hold accused terrorists without charging them with a crime, compared to 44 percent who called the practice unfair.

But just 29 percent believe the U.S. should honor its obligations to international treaties if it means releasing enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay. And 48 percent of Americans think the U.S. is a safer place due to information gleaned from prisoners held at the military camp.

Show of No Support

Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin is encouraging the top U.S. commander in Iraq to tell Iraqi leaders the American people don't support President Bush on Iraq.

Praising General George Casey's tentative plan to begin withdrawing some U.S. troops from Iraq next year, Levin claimed the president's policy is that U.S. troops will stay in Iraq as long as the Iraqis want them. That idea, says Levin has "got to be proven false," adding, "General Casey is the one who will hopefully carry the message that the American people do not support an open-ended commitment, do not support the administration's position that we're there as long as the Iraqis need us."

'Sneaking Into St. Louis'?

In a fundraising e-mail to supporters two days ago, Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry wrote that President Bush would be "sneaking into St. Louis" to raise money for Missouri Republican Senator Jim Talent.

In fact, the president arrived in broad daylight aboard Air Force One for yesterday's publicly scheduled 6 p.m. fundraiser, which received television coverage.

So how did Kerry respond today? By again accusing the Republican party of "sneaking President Bush" into Missouri, "under cover of darkness." In yet another fundraising e-mail, Kerry asks potential donors to make the GOP "pay a price" for the president's "under the radar" travel.

Full of Cold Air?

The American left is blaming a new culprit in the country's turn towards the Republican Party in recent years — air conditioning.

An article on the liberal Web site Alternet.org, titled "America's Air Conditioned Nightmare," argues that the southward migration made possible by AC's ability to beat the southern heat has caused citizens who might normally be influenced by the more liberal north to instead soak up the Sun Belt's conservative culture.

The piece also blames air conditioning for a "social chill" that's weakened the political system, making people "less inclined to gather spontaneously" and crippling grassroots political action.

—FOX News Channel's Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.