In just one week’s time, I have witnessed the transformation of the Congress won by Democrat moderates to the Congress run by Democrat moonbats.
When the Democrats won back control of the House and Senate last week, they did so not in a massive blowout devastating every opponent they faced, but as Hugh Hewitt put it, as a result of “a long series of bitter fights most of which were lost by very thin margins.”
The recipe for success consisted of recruiting a slate of moderate to conservative Democrats to run for open and vulnerable seats. In some cases those Democrats actually ran to the right of their Republican opponents. Another element of their strategy was to hide their liberal leaders. In the final days of the campaign the only place speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi could be found was on a Photoshopped milk carton on a few dozen conservative blogs.
Having won a majority of House seats and an even slimmer majority of Senate seats, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Democrat leadership would play their hand in victory. I was a bit surprised to see how quickly the success of the fresh new moderate Democrats turned into the power play of the ultra-liberal, business-as-usual Democrat congressmen and women in the leadership. Within a week of their winning election, Democrats shed their moderate masks.
It remains to be seen how the American public will react to the quick change. We do know how some outside America viewed the results of the election though.
Just days after the election, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to the GOP losses in the congressional elections a “victory for Iran."
Officials from Iran and Syria (Jerusalem(CNSNews.com) said that a Democrat-controlled Congress could help relieve pressure that had been put on them by the current administration.
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, leader of Iraq’s al Qaeda wing (DUBAI, Nov 10 (Reuters) said the Democrat victory was a step in the right direction. Then he said, "I swear by God we shall not rest from jihad until we ... blow up the filthiest house known as the White House." I guess the prospect of possible impeachment just wasn’t quite sufficient.
Maybe the al Qaeda leader didn’t hear the tough on national security rhetoric from some of the moderate Democrats that won last week. Or maybe he somehow knew what was just around the bend. Incoming House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers has vowed to his Muslim constituents that he will work to dismantle the Patriot Act and it has been reported that Senator Patrick Leahy, incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was drafting a bill to restore habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants.
The American electorate based their votes on issues other than just the war on terror though.
The “culture of corruption” theme helped Democrats by raising voter discontent with Congress (even though quite a few of those corrupt were Democrats) and Nancy Pelosi is still talking the corruption-busting talk. The walk, however, is another story.
Nancy Pelosi said, “the American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.”
In spite of those words, she backed John Murtha over Steny Hoyer for the position of majority leader, even as conservative talk radio hosts played over and over again a decades old tape of Murtha’s involvement in the Abscam scandal.
Another issue that Democrats used to out-Republican Republicans on election day was that of spending. While many Democrats running were on record in favor of reforming the earmarks process, Republicans pointed out that Murtha was one of the worst abusers of the practice.
According to The Hill, "Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) told a group of Democratic moderates on Tuesday that an ethics and lobbying reform bill being pushed by party leaders was “total crap,” but said that he would work to enact the legislation because Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports it."
John Murtha did not get enough votes to defeat Steny Hoyer for the majority leader position, but the very strong support he received from Pelosi demonstrated her decision to lead in typical "San Francisco liberal" fashion."
There are some similar problems in the Senate where the culture of corruption theme might not be playing so well if ABC News’ reports that Jack Abramoff is sharing with authorities information on “six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators" are true.
And if that doesn’t give voters enough reason for a good case of buyer’s remorse, this week Hillary Clinton signaled that HillaryCare is making a comeback.
I can’t say whether or not the American people will be shocked by the Congress they have gotten, after voting for so many moderate Democrats last week. I doubt many have even realized it yet. What I do know is that based on just the past week’s worth of words and actions by Pelosi and other Democrat leaders, the GOP campaign ads in 2008 will write themselves. That “culture of corruption” one alone should be a beauty. |