During the past week, civil rights leader Coretta Scott King suffered a stroke; gold star mother Cindy Sheehan had to abandon her vigil outside President Bush’s Texas hideaway when her mother suffered a stroke, and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid suffered a stroke.

What’s going on here?

Watch the news carefully over the next few weeks. If Donald Rumsfeld announces a successful Defense Department test of a new vascular disruption ray, or if Senate Republican leader and prominent cardiologist Bill Frist suddenly appears, unkempt and unshaven, after a mysterious week-long disappearance, we may have an important clue.

My own bet is that Pat Robertson will soon address his television audience, saying, “Focus, people! Focus! We’re only asking God to kill Supreme Court justices. For now.”