The Bums Are Going Home

Last night we got “Throw The Bums Out” – in spades.

The bums are packing, and Speaker Pelosi’s measuring the drapes has proven to be worthwhile.

But the Democrats had better be careful about gloating. The easy part was convincing the American People that they didn’t like the Iraq War. After all, it’s not hard to do when the media puts the war on the front page every day and counts up the dead like so much cordwood. Not even Saddam’s conviction and sentence – for the same crime that Hitler committed – was enough to sway things, and honestly, I’m not surprised.

America lost its will to fight after WWII, and we’ve never really regained it. During the campaign there were parallels drawn to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, as if this was some watershed loss for America.

It was not, of course. Tet was a pure military victory for America and the South. The North Vietnamese, who launched the offensive, failed to gain any of their objectives, and suffered catastrophic losses. But politically, Tet was a loss for America – it galvanized the anti-war movement in American and ultimately was responsible for our abandonment of a war – and thus our loss of - that we had “in the bag”.

Now add to this the complete and total abandonment of conservative principles in the Republican Party. Spending on pork barrel and entitlements has skyrocketed under Bush/Cheney – the exact opposite of what they were elected to do. “Responsible government” does not mean “whatever we can find to spend money on, we’ll use to buy votes.” That’s a Democrat policy, but the Republicans, drunk on power, decided to try that recipe themselves – with disastrous results.

So now, Speaker Pelosi, what is your plan? Let’s look at what she’s said she will do in her “first 100 hours”:

1. Implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission in full. Uh, what recommendations would those be (that haven’t been implemented already)? Full inspection of all cargo coming into US ports? Are you prepared to double the transport cost and triple the delays in shipping material into the US? Hope so. The TSA? We already have it. Tearing down the Chinese Wall? We already did. Eavesdropping and heightened surveillance on suspected terrorists and those here who aren’t citizens, so that they don’t overstay their welcome? I thought the Democrats were AGAINST those things?
2. Raise the minimum wage. By 40%? For most workers this means nothing. But for those who work at minimum wage, raising the cost of employing them by 40% will result in some of them being unemployed.
3. Pelosi says that they’ll work “in cooperation, not partisanship”. Ok, we’ll see about that. Conyers has promised to push for impeachment! That’s not partisanship?
4. The Iraq War. You know, why you got elected? Yeah. What’s your plan? I’ve yet to see it, and Pelosi has been strangely silent on what she intends to do.

Today we keep hearing “A New Direction” for America. What do the Democrats want to change?

The economy? How do you improve unemployment under 4%, inflation under control, consumer spending healthy, tax revenues growing explosively despite tax rate cuts, and the equities markets booming, with the Dow at new record highs.

Let’s see your plan, and what you think needs to be changed in this country.......

If the Democrats do not deliver, there is another terrorist attack on US soil, or the Democrats use their majority to “investigate, investigate and investigate again”, it is unlikely that this majority will hold beyond ’08.

The Republicans certainly deserved to be spanked - and they were. Now we'll see if the Democrats can do something constructive.