I believe General Russel Honore’s classic admonition to reporters, "Don’t get stuck on stupid," was one of the best lines so far of the new millennium. Part of its enduring value is its uncanny applicability to politics these days.

Honore made the statement to reporters who insisted on asking questions about Katrina when he was trying to focus on Rita. He said there would be plenty of time later to sort through inadequacies in the government’s response to Katrina, but for now they need to deal with Rita’s impending wrath.

"Don’t get stuck on stupid," thus became an instant metaphor -- at least to me -- for "Quit playing gotcha, quit dwelling in the past, and help us with solutions."

Honore’s metaphor perfectly fits the behavior of Washington Democrat politicians and caterwauling liberal loons since 2000 -- that’s right, the entire millennium, so far. In their singular obsession with George W. Bush -- "hatred" is probably more accurate -- they have been "stuck on stupid."

To clarify, I’m not calling Washington Democrats and the whacko left fringe stupid. Far from it. I am saying, though, that their perspective has been tainted by their consuming antipathy for George Bush.

They don’t even deny their contempt for President Bush but wear it proudly. I think they would deny, however, its irrationality and poisonous effects. Many of them seem to think it’s a completely rational reaction to his "contemptible" policies, particularly the war with Iraq. What they don’t tell you is that their ill will for him significantly preceded our invasion of Iraq, which many of them, by the way, supported.

Their unhealthy hatred for Mr. Bush dates back to the 2000 election, which they -- irrationally again -- believe he stole from Mr. Gore. The fact is, Mr. Gore was trying to steal the election himself and almost succeeded, through one of the most egregious perversions of the rule of law in our nation’s history, by the Florida Supreme Court.

But the real source of their animus is even more basic. They resent him because he represents their expulsion from power over the executive branch, which the Clinton eight-year heyday should have ensured them in perpetuity.

You’ll recall that their "entitlement" to the legislative branch was stolen from them in 1994, which is one of the reasons they consider Newt Gingrich another personification of evil. Adding insult to cumulative injury, they’ve also lost their monopoly on the media over the last 15 years. Continued...