Plenty of sound and fury for your perusal

Democrats think they can expand their control of the Alabama Legislature this year. Republicans think they can win a majority in one or both houses. The end result will be four more years of something that resembles the status quo, probably with a handful of Republican pickups given the state's recent trend toward the GOP due largely to wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Both state party chairmen allowed battle-ready rhetoric to flow like wine in a story in Sunday's (Mobile) Press-Register. GOP chairwoman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh -- yes, that's her real name -- has offered to pay for national Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean's plane ticket to come to Alabama to campaign for Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, who looks in the mirror a lot.

Cavanaugh also makes liberal use of the "liberal Democrat" phraseology in criticisms of the Legislature. When pressed, though, she gave only one example of conservative legislation that Democrats stalled: the Unborn Victims Act, which apparently was "stalled" in the sense that it stayed in committee for a few weeks before being passed overwhelmingly by both parties. Cavanaugh, shockingly enough, couldn't point to any liberal legislation coming out of Goat Hill, saying only that Democrats "play games" in committees.

Democratic chairman Joe Turnham chimed in with a pair of quips in an effort to undermine Cavanaugh's strategy of offering the Republican Party as "a package deal." Turnham, part one: "Twinkle talks about Howard Dean, but she never talks about Tom DeLay or Duke Cunningham or Jack Abramoff." Turnham, part two: "If Republicans want to nationalize this election, they may die by the very sword they wield. If [Cavanaugh] wants to nationalize this election, she better be prepared to defend $3 gas prices, giving ports away to Arab countries, and record budget deficits."

Anyone ready for the new fall line of attack ads yet?