Dems—and Terrorists—Win

Sour grapes? Who, moi? Nahh. Just the facts.

As of this writing, the Dems have pretty convincingly taken over the House of Representatives, and the Republicans, if they are very, very lucky, will have at most, a Senate presided over, directly, by the Vice-president. My guess is, at this point, that they won't even be that lucky.

My previous post detailed how the Dems and their MSM allies would basically lie, cheat, and steal to pick up seats in the usual places like Philadelphia where electoral shenanigans are a Democratic tradition. All of this happened yesterday. But that alone wouldn't have been enough to turn over control of the House to the Dems. So what did?

1. Was this a negative vote on the performance of President Bush? Sure, some of it was. The President clearly erred by not defending himself and his positions earlier in the year. If the home team is down, say, 10-7 at halftime, it's quite likely that the coach can pump them up so they can win the game by playing a more aggressive second half. But Rove and Mehlman sent their star QB (Bush) into the game at the two-minute warning when the visiting team just about had the game out of reach. For two smart guys, this was uncommonly bad timing. Sending Bush in earlier would have helped his approval rating, which, in turn, would have made it less easy for the Dems to lay the guilt trip for "supporting an unpopular President" on Republicans like Ehrlich (MD governor), Steele (MD senator) and Allen (VA senator) making it easy for lazy voters who vote with their emotions and not their brains, to engage in a kneejerk response. I.e., vote by proxy against Bush rather than FOR a candidate and his or her point of view. But this election, MSM aside, was not "all about Bush" and "all about Iraq" which is what the media would like you to believe, since that was the story they had in the can from the outset. Nope. It was more complicated than that.
2. The Republicans really lost because, over the past two years, they did a piss-poor job of leading, governing, and defining terms. Things like the Foley scandal, whose well-timed release by nefarious Democratic operative, did not bring the Repubs down, but most certainly didn't help. Since the Dems believe in moral equivalency, I should point out that, from Clinton's mis-use of a fine cigar, to Representative Jefferson's storage of vast quantities of ill-gotten lucre in his freezer, to Barney Frank's in-house prostitution ring, the Dems do this sort of thing all the time. But the press gives 'em a pass. (And indeed, Jefferson has just been handily re-elected, as has been impeached former judge Alcee Hastings who is now possibly in line to head the House Intelligence Committee!!) Yet, in point of fact, the Republicans never acted like they were in leadership positions. Speaker Denny Hastert, while he was often able to round up enough animals to pass legislation, also helped the Dems by handing out enough pork to make the Dems look like amateurs. (More of this anon.) Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Frist presided over a bunch of maverick idiots bent either on manipulating election laws in favor of the Democrats (McCain) to those who endorsed the Clintonic idea of treating terrorists like they were part of the criminal justice process (DeWine and Graham). With dolts like this on your team, who needs enemies? (Hugh Hewitt has some excellent thoughts on this phenomenon here.) The Republican leadership simply did not kick enough ass to get the job done. And the independent voters, who decided to give them a chance last time around, decided they wouldn't repeat the mistake.
3. Riffing off the above, the Repubs also turned the Federal budget into a monstrous, 2-year pig roast, dispensing so much pork with so little concern for the consequences, that they alienated the Republicans, libertarians, and indpendents who put them there to CUT Federal spending and intervention. They actually out-Democratted the Dems over the past two years, and they paid for it in the most ironic of ways. They thought they'd duplicate the Democrat's secret weapon of shamelessly buying votes by dispensing pork to valued constituents. Well, surprise! The Repubs got about the same return on their lavish investment as they would have gotten by getting in at the end of a Ponzi scheme. If they ever manage to get back in power again, maybe they'll remember that only Democrats can effectively buy votes with pork. When Republicans try to buy them in the same manner, all they're doing is purchasing a one-way ticket out of town. That wasn't why they were elected. Now they know. They can either learn this lesson, or, like their generally dimwitted Democratic counterparts, they can blame it on the other party.

The Repubs can come back from this. Elections in the 6th year of an 8-year presidency are notoriously bad for the party in power, as are first-term midterms, the bad effects of which the Bushies were able to evade. All is not lost, although things are not going to be so hot for the next two years, particularly if another opening in the Supremes occurs with Marxist Pat Leahy at the helm of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But if the Repubs are to come back, they're going to have to start behaving like Republicans again, not free-spending Democrats. We'll be looking for evidence of this in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the other winners here are our friends the terrorists, who, aided by the 5th-column MSM, were more than happy enough to send 100+ body bags home in October just to help the MSM and the Dems win the election. Deaths will drop off now, as the terroristas await the fruit of their labors when the next Congress convenes. They learned long ago that the hard leftism that infects Boomer Democrats now back in power, along with their MSM cheerleaders, will lead them toward repeating the same mistakes they caused in Vietnam. Thus, they were eager to manipulate the democratic system to, hopefully, put the cut-and-run crowd in Congress to thwart Bush who they know to be immovable. It would be an absolute disaster if these Woodstock-tinged, aging, and almost-always rich Boomer solons were allowed to mount an instant replay of the scenario they engineered in Vietnam, which, ultimately, caused the deaths of millions in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. But that's what the terrorists expect them to do, and the Dems will try not to disappoint.

All in all, not a very good night for folks who like smaller government, a more powerful military, and who believe, as we do here, that the GWOT is here to stay for a long time. And that we can't afford to lose a major early battle in that war (Iraq) because lefty Boomer Democrats are trying to relive their Woodstock dreams one final time before their throats are slit.