I really wasn’t going to publish this picture of President-elect Obama. As a fellow smoker I know how embarassing these sorts of snapshots are. No, I was going to give him a free ride and not even say anything about the habit we both share but then he turned on me and I have no choice.

You see, the New York Times reported today that the Democrats are planning all out war on tobacco this year and my brother in addiction is throwing in with their cause. Here’s a guy who knows what it’s like to be taxed to death, treated like a social pariah and banished to the farthest reaches of parking lots all because he enjoys a cigarette now and then. You would have thought that he could have pulled Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi aside and explained to them that enough persecution was enough. But no, he caves into the politically correct group and abandons the only ones that understand.

Well, Sir, you have to do what you have to do (I think one of your predecessors said that). But just to show you that I’m a bigger man, let me extend an invitation to you. If ever you stop by Phoenix and want to sneak one come on over. I have a basketball hoop in the backyard and you can tell the press and Secret Service that you just want to take a break and play a little ball. We’ll light up a couple and I won’t tell a soul.

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