After a week of racial posturing on both the left and the right, the whole Gatesgate fiasco has come down to one simple but all-important factor: beer.

That's right folks, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Cambridge, Mass., Police Sgt. James Crowley; and President Barack Obama are going to sit down on Thursday at the White House and throw back a couple of brewskis over the presumable themes of racial reconciliation and racial profiling.

Who knew it would be this easy?

If Dr. Martin Luther King and Bull Connor had figured out that burying the hatchet was this simple half a century ago, we'd all be singing 'Kum By Yah' right now. ...

There's no official word on what the three amigos of "can't-we-all-just-get-along" fame will be swilling down, but my vote is for Red Stripe (in lieu of West Africa's Star beer). If it works in Jamaica, well, dammit, it can work in the White House.

I realize that the president will probably be obligated to pick a domestic brand, even though he might want a Heineken. Gates is likely to go for Guinness. Since filming his PBS series, 'African American Lives 2,' he discovered that much of his DNA is Irish. And Crowley, well, he just looks like a Coors guy (and no, I'm not insinuating any racial urban legends). But word is he wants a Blue Moon, and Obama likes Miller?

But all the branding and almost certain lucrative marketing aside, part of me is glad that these three decided to take some time away from the less-important jobs of educating students about the Pan-African diaspora, protecting the public and leading the free world. What's important is that we sometimes stop for a minute and grab a brew with people who get on our nerves.

Hey, there are plenty of people who I intensely dislike, but I always thought that if we had the chance to crack a brew, throw some cee-lo or hit the strip club together, our differences could have been settled.

In my experience, crap games, beer and shake-it joints all attract politicians, cops and academics anyhow. So I think these guys should make a night of it.

Barack, tell Michelle you're going to shoot some b-ball with the fellas and you don't know when you'll be back. Skip, tell wifey you'll be staying extra-late as a guest in the Lincoln Bedroom and that you'd prefer not to take any calls. Jim, I'm sure this will be easy for you: Just tell the missus you're goin' out and you'll be back when you'll be back. You're obviously pretty good at getting the last word in a disagreement.

One caveat, gentlemen: dice games up in Shaw District have strict house rules, and D.C. strippers don't take singles.