Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie has sent out a note to folks on the Bush-Cheney '04 mailing list, and is looking ahead to inauguration day:

In just over five weeks, on January 20, 2005, the President will be sworn in at an Inaugural Celebration in Washington, DC. They say the Inaugural is a celebration of the President, but it is really a celebration of you and the work you did on the campaign to ensure the President's agenda moves forward.

You're invited to join us at an Inaugural Party for the President, or to host one in your home.

It'll be fun to watch on TV, for a few minutes anyway. But the greatest inaugural in American history was, without a doubt, Gerald Ford's.

No parades. No dancing. No fireworks. Just Nixon on a helicopter flashing the double-V.

Understated, elegant and a relief to a country sick of Watergate and Vietnam, Ford's swearing-in ceremony was brief and to the point. He calmed a lot of people down when he said, on Aug. 9, 1974: "My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over."

(Well, this year it might not be over for the Blue States.)

Now, when the troops start coming home from Iraq after the job is finished...that will be worthy of fireworks. Until then, something understated might go over a little better on Jan. 20.