Just 5 years and one month to the day after 9/11, a small aircraft crashed into a building in New York City, striking terror in the hearts of the public.
No mere coincidence, say Republican strategists, who note that the term "10/11" could become the new 9/11, and that Democrats are obviously to blame for an election-year stunt that claimed the life of at least one person.
"They did it to hurt the President," says a GOP insider who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's the Democrat's October Surprise."
FBI investigators state that there is no evidence that terrorism was involved in the crash.
A Democratic spokesman responded that Democrats wish they'd thought of this plot. He also denied reports that former presidential candidate John Kerry was the pilot of the plane. When asked if the pilot was Al Gore, the spokesman replied, "No comment."
In other news, the whereabouts of Rep. Mark Foley (D-FL), the center of a sex scandal involving Congressional pages, has been unknown for several days. Foley, who received his pilot's license in 2005, supposedly checked into an alcohol rehabilitation center after resigning from Congress on September 29.