Those Whiny, Clueless Democrats

All Democrats do is complain about Republicans.

I've grown weary of this oft-repeated mantra, especially when it comes from otherwise intelligent people who ought to know better. In case no one's noticed, the Democratic Party has been the minority party for several years now. As such, it's the responsibility, nay, the patriotic duty of the Dems to point out the mistakes of the GOP, just as it will be the duty of the Repubs to do the same once they're the minority party again. But in the interest of fairness, let's discuss a few of the more egregious examples of DWS (Democratic Whining Syndrome):

First up, we have the Democratic Party spending $45 million - 90% of its advertising budget - on attack ads against its opponents going into the final two months of the 2006 mid-term elections. Talk about pointless complaining.

Oops, sorry. That would be the Republican National Congressional Committee. My bad. I doubt the DNC has $50 million in its entire budget.

Well, the Dems sure are bitching up a storm about this whole Mark Foley sex scandal thing. Just look at the baseless tripe they're spewing!

Erm, sorry again. Turns out that was the Republicans too. But, hey, there's that one lone Democrat on the Page Board, Dale Kildee, whining because the Republican House leadership never told him about Foley's page fetish. Oh, grow up, Dale.

Here's one of my personal faves, an oldie but goodie from last year. It seems a few Dems on the House Judiciary Committee got all uptight about the Repubs rewriting some Dem-sponsored amendments to CIANA (the Child Interstate Abortion and Notification Act). Honestly, I'm sure all the well-meaning Repub committee members intended was to make the amendments clearer before they became a permanent part of the CIANA legislation, as we all know how bad Dems are at articulating ideas. Incidentally, none of the amendments in question passed, which at worst makes the Repubs guilty of wasting taxpayer money rewriting something that in no way affected the final piece of legislation. Bad GOoPers! A slap on the wrist for you!

In case no one can tell, I'm being sarcastic. These are just a few examples I could quickly pull out of my ass without having to stand up. I'm sure there are many more cases of similar, entirely justified complaints by Dems. On the other hand, it sure seems like the GOP might have a wee bit of a problem with talking shit about the opposition.

Democrats have no ideas.

Here's another load of crap I hear too often. Anyone who thinks the Democratic Party has no ideas need look no further than the Agenda on the DNC's website. What's that? You don't have the URL singed onto your brain like I do? Never fear - all you have to do is go to Google, put democratic party agenda in the search box, and click "Search." Voila! It's the very first result. Anyone who gives even the slightest, least smelly shit about elections ought to be researching both parties' platforms at this time, with less than four weeks until the election.

Speaking of bad Dem ideas, the main reason the DNC has so little cash on hand is because it's going out as fast as it comes in, in support of the 50 State Strategy. This is the brainchild of that raving lunatic Howard Dean, and its purpose is simple to the point of absurdity: challenge Republicans in every state, county, town, district, and precinct, period. Dean is rebuilding the party from the ground up and it's already shown success. The absurd part is that this is exactly what the Democratic Party failed to do over the past few decades, and it's one of the main reasons we've lost so much ground.

The 50 State Strategy is intended to be a long-term project; I doubt even Dean expected to see much payoff by the mid-terms. But then an unexpected thing happened: Mark Foley resigned. The immediate effect was to put what was considered a "safe" Republican seat, FL-16, into play as a top-tier race. And thankfully, there was Tim Mahoney, Democratic challenger, who suddenly found himself the beneficiary of a whole lot of national attention and contributions.

Then, increasing evidence began to appear that members of the Republican House leadership, particularly House Speaker Dennis Hastert (IL-14) and NRCC Chair Tom Reynolds (NY-26), were either actively involved in covering up Foley's page-persuing problem, or colossally stupid in ignoring it. So what? Well, both Reynolds and Hastert are up for reelection and are being challenged by Jack Davis and John Laesch, respectively.

An argument can be made that the Dems are just the lucky beneficiaries of recent GOP fuckups, and it's certainly true to an extent. But no one can argue the fact that the 50 State Strategy made it possible for those formerly safe GOP seats to have quite suddenly become more competitive by ensuring viable challengers were in place.

Challenge every Republican, everywhere. What a crappy plan. Why do Dems bother?

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The most telling thing about people who parrot the above neoconservative talking points, and many more, is that they rarely have actual examples to back up their assertions. But this is a typical symptom of believing everything the corporate media reports. There is usually so much more behind the headlines, and it's easier to find than you might think.

copyright 10/14/2006