Posted on 06/22/2006 11:42:23 AM PDT by veronica
Have you heard that strange sound at night lately? No, it’s not cicadas. That’s the Democrat bubble deflating, a phenomenon that recurs more frequently than every seventeen years, and sounds like this:
Pssssssssssssssssss.
The Democrat bubble gets almost no press coverage, even though the media loves to report about other bubbles. Most Americans are certainly familiar with the stock market bubble of the late ’90s, as well as eager media reports for years of a looming real estate bubble, so far more imagined than real. But few people are aware that a political bubble has been forming this year and is starting to deflate.
For most of 2006, as energy prices climbed, news out of Iraq (as reported by those with an agenda) worsened, and virtually every bad thing that happened in America got blamed on President Bush or his administration. As a result, a media consensus formed that the Democrats were in a great position to win back one if not both chambers of Congress in the upcoming elections.
Such a view has become so pervasive that even Republican media members and pundits are buying into it. In fact, you can’t turn on talk radio or Fox News without hearing some expert discuss his or her fears over how bad things could be for the right in November.
Yet, what all this conservative hand wringing ignores is that the Democrats have been able to hide in the fruit cellar much like Norman Bates’ mother most of this year and allow events to favorably control the agenda without their input. However, as we get closer to November 7, these folks are actually going to have to speak to the American people.
And when they do, the bubble will burst.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Of late, we’ve begun to see evidence of the first molecules of air starting to escape. The most prominent such seepage has to be Congressman William Jefferson’s disgraceful freezer act, and his removal from the all-important House Ways and Means committee.
This one incident by itself deflated the Democrat Bubble by at least several pounds per square inch, for it makes it impossible for the left to claim that corruption in the nation’s capital is exclusively a Republican problem.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Following this up a week later was the revelation about Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) accepting tickets to boxing matches in Las Vegas from the Nevada Athletic Commission while in the middle of crafting laws to regulate the sport. Even though three weeks have passed, it is still delicious to review the excuse for this behavior as offered up by the Associated Press on May 30. See if you can read the following without spitting coffee all over your keyboard:
“He defended the gifts, saying that they would never influence his position on the bill and he was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry.”
Pssssssssssssssssss.
A few weeks later, prohibitive 2008 Democrat presidential favorite Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was booed at a liberal gathering called the Take Back America Conference held in Washington, D.C., on June 13. The attendees weren’t thrilled by the senator’s declaration that there shouldn’t be a specific date set when troops must be withdrawn from Iraq. So much for taking back America.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Moving from one presidential wannabe to another, after three weeks in movie theaters, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” has actually sold less than $7 million worth of tickets. This suggests that despite an almost unprecedented media exposure for one politician’s Hollywood exploits, Americans either aren’t buying into his vision of doom and gloom, or just aren’t buying into him. Go figure.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Moving from one failed Democrat presidential nominee to another, a front-page New York Times article about Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) on June 21 indicated a huge rift between Lurch and his own party:
“[Democrats] fear the latest evolution of Mr. Kerry’s views on Iraq may now complicate their hopes of taking back a majority in Congress in 2006.”
What’s this all about? Well, much as the aforementioned expedient political position of the moment expressed by Madame Hillary, the Democrats – always looking to straddle fences and be noncommittal – want to advocate a reduction of troops in Iraq, but without a certain fixed date for a complete withdrawal. But:
“Mr. Kerry has insisted on setting a date, for American combat troops to pull out in 12 months, saying anything less is too cautious.”
When is the junior senator from Massachusetts going to learn from the senior senator from Massachusetts that actually taking a definitive stand on an issue people can hold you to doesn’t ingratiate you with your party? As such, his fellow Democrats weren’t pleased:
“But interviews suggest a frustration with Mr. Kerry, never popular among the caucus, and still unpopular among many Democrats for failing to defeat a president they considered vulnerable. Privately, some of his Democratic peers complain that he is too focused on the next presidential campaign.”
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Meanwhile, the left’s second-favorite anti-war puppet, Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), practically did a meltdown on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on June 18 when he actually suggested several times to host Tim Russert that American troops in Iraq be redeployed to Okinawa.
Yes, he really did say “Okinawa,” and I’ve got the digital recording on my DVR to prove it.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Speaking of incoherent views regarding the war, a few days prior to Murtha making a fool of himself on “Meet the Press,” House majority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) released a statement at his website making fools of the entire Democrat Party:
“After failing to produce a Democrat leadership alternative about how best to combat terrorism in a post-9/11 world, it’s clear that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Capitol Hill Democrats are divided on their ‘retreat and defeat’ message on the Global War on Terror. Neither House nor Senate Democrats are sure of when they want to retreat or how they want to concede defeat.”
Boehner went on to quote various news agencies depicting Democrats in total disarray concerning this issue. Once again, go figure.
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Finally, on June 21, Democrat political pundit Susan Estrich wrote a scathing op-ed concerning her party:
“Why is it that Republicans are united in their support of an unpopular war and Democrats are divided in their opposition? How is it that, speaking purely politically, the war right now seems to be working better as an issue for Republicans, who are forced to support the unpopular president and his ill-begotten war, than the Democrats, who are free to oppose it? Is it a question of leadership? Of competence? Can the Democrats simply not get their act together?”
Pssssssssssssssssss.
Adding it all up, this has been a terrible four weeks for Democrats that has proven the only way they gain support from the electorate is when they keep their mouths shut. The problem for them is that with November 7 now less than five months away, those up for re-election can’t stay quiet any longer.
And, as Estrich pointed out, what might be popular this November mightn’t be so in November 2008. As a result, Democrats seeking re-election now as well as a presidential nomination in two years have to emote ideas that might not help their party win back Congress. This has not only created a division within the party, but is producing a hole in its veneer that might be irreparable.
As such, though silence has been golden as a political strategy for Democrats the past six months, as the election draws near, this luxury is dissipating as quickly as the air inside their bubble.
Noel Sheppard is a contributing writer to the Business & Media Institute as well as contributing editor for the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters.org. He welcomes feedback.
Great article. Going to toss it up on Craigslist so the rabid libs will jump out of their windows from despair.
With so many pricks in that party, it's no wonder!
Oh,this is so sad, the poor Rats, but they can`t help it, they were born with their heads up their, well, you figure it out.
And half of those were bought by Laurie David.
Well, ya know what I always say... Pssssssssssssssssss on 'em!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!
As such, though silence has been golden as a political strategy for Democrats the past six monthsSilence? They're always screaming their shrill heads off about something. When have the been silent?
Nothing's changing. The only thing different is now we're getting closer to an actual election. And all those voters, so used to reading in their papers and watching on TV how evil Bush is, how evil Christians are, how evil corporations are, how evil the Right is, how evil the Republicans are... now, as it comes time to actually vote, and the alternative is a party of traitors and defeatists, then suddenly the party of Bush doesn't look so bad anymore.
You can post articles on Craigslist?
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
The Deflating Democrats
With so many pricks in that party, it's no wonder!
---
OOOOoo...
There's a tagline in that one, there is. Thanks!
But you get dibs. ;-)
This guy GETS IT.
The Dems have been handed so much good luck, in terms of public perception due to MSM slanting of the news; normal boredom and anger at the party that's been in power for so long (the R's are complacent and need new blood, but that's a different issue); and the reality if a state of war, and Republicans' real (as opposed to media-created) flaws.
With all this, the Dems could come up with three priorities. One on the war and their new ideas for the WOT; one for the economy and how they would fix it (seeing how they keep telling us how awful it is), including oil; and one on a more local level, such as gay marriage, which had such a lopsided defeat when it was put up to votes and position polls.
And they couldn't come up with positions that were anymore than "Whatever the Republicans are for, we're against it."
A legitimate party could have taken the opportunity and been seen as leaders of a new way. Except, the dems are, simply put, based on lies--about the war (they weren't lied to and they know it; in fact, their last prez made regime change US policy), about energy (they call for lower gas prices but prevent drilling, refinery expansion, and wind power in their back yards), and gay marriage (they want to make it the law of the land).
The Dems are too afraid to risk losing their good luck by taking it as an opportunity. Instead, they are behaving like they think this chance is an end in itself. They think power is going to be just handed to them because they have stood meekly by.
They may be in for a shock.
It's free for the taking.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
I had to post this on Craigslist. The lunatics over there are having a breakdown.
""You moron. Murtha said, "We can go to Okinawa." It is nuance. He didn't say "we must go to Okinawa." Sort of like saying, "There are no WMD" but then saying, "well we never doubted there was WMD, just not the quantities that Bush claimed there were." /sarcasm off
Of course that presumes that Bush did say how much was there, what type they were and their present condition. He didn't of course, but that won't stop the MSM from hiding the fact that for 3 years we have been hearing about "NO WMD" when in fact there was WMD. All those editorials, headlines, articles about "NO WMD", all lies.
The media made you believe in the lies. They used all their power to lie to you about something to make you hate a man that is only trying to protect this country. You became a product of the MSM's Marxist agenda. All your emotions, think of those days you cried out that BUSH IS A NAZI and we went to war for the oil and Halliburton going to Iraq was a plot by Cheney to make money. All the killing and the bad things that are happening. All those articles the MSM fed to you. They were all lies. Never anything good. Only the bad. Your depression, your anger, your hatred, all part of a media campaign to take down a sitting President during wartime and you were the pawns. Rather got caught and tried to pulla "Fake but Accurate". And you bought into the lie, hook, line and sinker.
What else is a lie? Valerie Plames identity? The yellowcake? The economy? Haditha? John Kerry's heroism? Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004? It is time you started thinking for yourselves instead of listening to what the MSM and leftists who want to regain power in America have told you.
Stop listening to the propaganda and drinking the leftist koolaid. THINK! You have been given a mind. Decide what is true and what isn't. Whether you dislike Bush or you like Bush, or whether you dislike the administrations policies or like them, at least read everything before making an informed decision.""
Susan--The answer is simple. Most Democrats know the war was justified. How can you have a united party when many of its members know their party's majority position is wrong?
"The Dems are too afraid to risk losing their good luck by taking it as an opportunity. Instead, they are behaving like they think this chance is an end in itself. They think power is going to be just handed to them because they have stood meekly by."
The Dems care about two things. Money and Power. Nothing more, nothing less. They could care less about helping the country. They do exactly the same thing as the Politburo in the Kremlin did. Oppress their opponents, steal from their constituents and pay off the media to hide the bodies.
(Why is it that Republicans are united in their support of an unpopular war)
Estrich and the rest of the Dems will never understand that true patriots support their nation at war whether the war is "popular" or not. After all, wars are not freaking beauty contests!
As long as you quote the article.
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