The Donkey In Winter

The case of Joe Lieberman is symptomatic of what has gone wrong in recent years with the democratic party. Now we can all see what a "loyal party man" he really is. After losing the primary on August 8th, he vowed that he would run as an independent, thereby assuring that his seat would go to the GOP in November. What a pathetic, contemptible crybaby! With democrats like that, who the heck needs republicans? Every once in a while I find myself wondering why I left the democratic party six years ago in the first place. Thank goodness for poor old Joe! He's always there to remind me. One would think that he would swallow his pride, wish Ned Lamont good luck and, for the sake of his country, do everything humanly possible to insure a democratic victory. Not our Joe! No sir! He is as ideologically twisted as any democrat I've ever seen. The only thing Joe Lieberman cares about is Joe Lieberman. Knowing his history, are you surprised by this turn of events?

He is so blinded by his own stupid ambition that he is unable to see that he now has a golden opportunity to make some tasty lemonade out of some seriously nasty lemons. He could be seen as some kind of elder statesman of the democratic party. Instead he chooses to burn all of his bridges behind him. Recently there was serious speculation that the First Fool might fire Donald Rumsfeld and appoint Lieberman as Secretary of Defence. Does he really believe that there will be a place for him in the next democratic administration? After this he'll be persona non grata. Good riddance.

Do you want to have a good laugh? I mean do you want a really great fall on the floor, gut busting giggle? Keep your eye on Hillary Clinton! The democratic voters in the state of Connecticut have made themselves abundantly clear: Any democrat who supports the obscenity now being committed against the children of Iraq - using American children as cannon fodder - will not be getting the nomination in 2008. Period. It's going to be an absolute riot in the next few months watching her as she desperately tries to distance herself from her previous support for what is obviously the stupidest foreign policy blunder since Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1942. At this very moment, she is meeting with her advisers, trying to chart a strategy that will allow her position to "evolve" and yet remain consistent at the same time. She has one thing going in her favor: The American public has become so jaw droppingly dumbed down in recent years with respect to affairs of state that they probably won't even know the difference. By all means, watch the "evolution" of Hillary's position on the war in Iraq. By this time next year, she'll be sharing a bunk with Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas. I desperately want to see a woman take the oath of office one day - but, please, not Hillary Clinton. The very idea that she is, at the moment, the odds on favorite for taking the 2008 nomination is a joke. And yet there are people out there - a lot of them - who actually take her seriously. Go figure!

I'll be voting democratic in 2008 no matter whom they nominate. They are the lesser of two definite evils - much less. But I have a sinking feeling that when I pull the lever in the voting booth two years from now, I'll be holding my nose. As a matter of fact, the ONLY potential candidate I can foresee myself getting excited about is Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. He has not shied away from his progressive roots as so many of his fellow party members have in the last quarter of a century. Why is it that we constantly have to remind these knuckleheads that they are, in fact, the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Russ is the kind of guy I can envision throwing all foolish caution to the wind and running as an honest-to-goodness liberal. (That's another failing of the democrats. They've allowed the extreme right to turn that once-honored word into an expletive). And let's face it: It's high time a Jewish person called the White House "home". Forty-five years ago, Jack Kennedy erased all doubt that a Catholic could be a good president. Some people actually claimed that he would be more loyal to the Vatican and he proved them wrong. The time has come for Russ to take the same, heroic stand. There will be those who will claim that he will be more concerned with the welfare of Israel than that of his own country but Russ will prove them wrong, as well!

Is his mother still alive?? Oh I hope so!! Wouldn't that be great? I can see it now: Russ is conducting a prime time press conference in the east room and here comes Mrs. Feingold, walking up to him on the podium, pinching his cheek and saying, "He may be your president but he's still my little meshugina! Just look at that punum there"! A nice old Jewish mother. I love it!

The next democratic nominee will have to spend much of his or (God forbid) her time instilling into the mass consciousness all the good that the progressives have done for this country. Everything that we now take for granted - Social Security; Unemployment insurance; Medicaid; Medicare; The Civil Rights Act; The Voting Rights Act - all of these things were put in place by, progressive, liberal administrations and every single one of them were opposed, unanimously, by the right wing. How would the people of this country react if these achievements, some of which have been in place for over seventy years, disappeared overnight? It wouldn't be a pretty picture, trust me.

Conservative causes may look good when viewed through a contemporary prism; But they always, without exception, look foolish, even totalitarian, when viewed through the objective lens of 20/20 historical hindsight. If you don't believe me, look up every conservative cause in American history - starting with slavery! No doubt about it: America is in dire need of a long overdue history lesson - not to mention a course or two in civics.

Is the democratic party dead? It's kind of hard to say. They certainly aren't beyond hope like their counterparts on the right, that's for sure - but they've got to go back to their traditional ideals! They have got to start behaving like democrats and stop acting like, as someone once famously noted, republican lite! The GOP's main talking point today, as voiced by Republican National Committee Chairman, Ken Mehlman, is that Lieberman's defeat is proof positive that the democratic party has been taken over by left wing extremists. As Donald Rumsfeld might sigh feigned in exasperation, "My goodness"! That statement is just too silly to even dignify with a comment. They've been hurling that same, tired accusation for over half a century now - even while the Dems were creeping slowly but surely toward the right. The fact that someone as basically centrist as Bill Clinton could be portrayed as a radical leftist illustrates better than anything the extremist nature of the modern day GOP. It just doesn't pass the giggle test!

The next two and a half years will be the most crucial period in the long history of the democratic party. If Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman is a sign of things to come, it is a very hopeful sign, indeed.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net