Wow. Jim Jeffords is retiring, and it looks likely that Rep. Bernie Sanders will run for his seat. I haven't been in Vermont to track Sanders' ambitions regarding the U.S. Senate, but apparently he's been talking about it for a while. David Sirota has a good summary of why Bernie's the left's best candidate in '06. And, as Atrios points out, please please don't let the Dems do something stupid and run their own candidate against Bernie in the general (assuming Bernie stays an "I").

A personal story, if I may: In the early 80s, when Bernie was the mayor of Burlington, I lived on Booth Street in Burlington's North End. My house was right across from Pomeroy Park, where I hung out and played basketball almost every day.

The basketball court at Pomeroy Park.

Bernie's son Levi often played there, and Bernie himself would occasionally show up for a pickup game. On the court, Bernie wasn't the mayor. He was just a guy with faded blue jeans, thick glasses, and wild graying hair.

At some point when I was 11 or 12, I became concerned about the condition of the court. The asphalt was cracked in places, and the freezing winters had deformed the surface, creating ripples and dips that posed a dire threat to ankles.

The court clearly needed to be fixed. I decided to do something about it. So with preadolescent naivete and bravado, I called City Hall and asked for the mayor. He wasn't available to talk just then, but his secretary took my name and number.

Either that evening or one soon after, I got a phone call at home. It was Mayor Sanders. "What can I do for you?" he asked me in his thick Brooklyn accent. I told him about the condition of the court, knowing that he'd played there. I expressed my concern about people's ankles. Bernie listened, said he'd look into it, and thanked me for getting in touch.

Needless to say, it was a memorable phone call. I had spoken out on behalf of the citizenry! The mayor had personally attended to my grievance! Whether or not the court actually got fixed now seemed almost inconsequential.

I'm not sure how much time went by--maybe a week, maybe a month. But one day as I walked home after school, I approached the park and stopped cold in my tracks. The basketball court was being ripped apart by huge yellow earth-movers. The noise was awesome. I ran home, called my basketball buddies, and then ran back to the park to sit on the grass and proudly watch the demolition as though those huge chunks of asphalt were being hoisted by my own hands.

The park soon had a flat, smooth, perfect court.

So that's my Bernie Sanders story. There's also the time I held hands with his stepdaughter while watching "Fletch" at the Nickelodeon, but that's for another post.

Bernie for Senate!