The flap over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a Cambridge police sergeant, leading to the two sharing a beer or two on the White House lawn makes me wonder if another arrest, this one at the Minneapolis airport a couple of years ago, couldn't have turned out differently.

Let's see: former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig gets arrested by an airport cop in the privacy of his own public restroom, yelling, "You wouldn't arrest me here if I were a liberal Democrat." A reporter asks George W. Bush about the incident. He says the officer acted "stupidly" and the next thing you know POTUS, Larry, the cop, and Dick Cheney are pouring shots at the Texas Ranch.

A joint statement says the national conversation on the matter is no longer stalled, although Larry wishes they'd used a different term. Dialogue over a cool one ... it works every time!