DEMS WON'T SACRIFICE POWER TO HELP THEIR BASE

So who loses as the Democrats cruise to what they imagine is certain victory in 2008 in both the White House and the Capitol?

Many will reactively think the Republicans lose. But do they? I remember a liberal colleague who bristled while expressing her concern to me in 2001 when Bush took office, wondering whether the country could survive a Republican President as well as Congressional majority.

My answer was simply this. It doesn’t matter. Perception is everything and whatever happens on their watch, the Republicans will be blamed. I told her that they will be blamed and they will pay, which will eventually lead to a majority in the other direction.

There’s nothing prophetic about that. It’s just common sense…Ass backwards common sense, which is the only kind that seems to work for the confused and uninformed electorate in this country.

Now with Hillary or B. Hussein, or both, racing for the White House next year, history will repeat itself as it does term after term after term.

So back to the original questions; who loses? The main constituency of the Democrats, that’s who loses. With the general public seething at the Republicans, deservedly or not, the Dems are getting away with ignoring their base.

Certainly the GOP screwed up big time and deservedly got tossed from office. They got arrogant, fat and imperial. The people spoke in numbers in November and summarily booted them out. Did they deserve it? Hell, yeah!

Too bad though that the vast majority of voters I spoke with didn’t have a clue as to why they hated the Republicans or what they thought the Democrats would do. They just wanted “change,” which they think they got.

The Dems gave us a peek at how they are treating their constituency when Newt Gingrich last Sunday singled out the Detroit school system as a disaster that is crippling young Americans. He pointed out the failures of that system in how they only graduate 22 percent of freshmen on time, citing the Gates Foundation. Fully 75 percent of Detroit public school students do not graduate on time, which leads to a 72 percent unemployment rate among African American males in the city and a 60 percent chance of going to jail by the time they reach their mid 30s.

The official reaction? Very predictable by anyone’s honest measure. District officials were quick to defend the fine job they’re doing with (to?) the children of Detroit. The city’s largest employer (city government being the second largest) is fraught with waste, bureaucracy, absenteeism, cronyism and overall incompetence…obviously.

Where is the Democratic Party? They won’t say anything to criticize the school system. School districts, along with most government entities are union, protected by archaic rules and tend to vote Democrat so they can stay safe and inefficient.

The Democrats won’t chance offending their core constituencies simply because keeping these groups status quo, keeps the Dems in power. And that is tragic!

Are the Republicans any better? No! And they’re just as scared of attempting to do anything for fear of alienating the very people who won’t vote for them anyway.

So the losers, my friends, are the folks who lose time after time. The so-called underclass that Democrats claim to champion, and that mistakenly think are being championed by the Democrats.

If the Democrats were to get serious about caring for Americans, they would lose their power. And that’s simply not an option…for them.

To quote Newt, “The crisis is simply a failure of citizenship.”

What a shame….

JD.

Ps. I love Texas! I spend a fair amount of time in the Lone Star State and absolutely love it! Though it’s somewhat embarrassing having affection for a state from where the Dixie Chicks came.

NEW CONGRESS? NOT!

I echo Jeff Babbin’s question in a recent column in which he asks who, exactly, are the 14 percent of Americans who approve of the job Congress is doing?

The lowest approval rating the last Republican Congress received, before being summarily, and rightfully, tossed from office, was 24 percent in August of 2006 according to a Fox News poll.

Could it be that this Congress, after all their ballyhooing and hype about doing things differently and more honestly, haven’t accomplished a thing yet? Could it be that they helped themselves to a nice raise for doing nothing since the November elections?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came into office promising massive reform. I’ve yet to witness any meaningful reform. The House, which averaged less than two work days a week in 2006, was given January 8th off – after less than a week in office – to watch the collegiate national championship football game…compliments of Mrs. Pelosi. Does this make them look serious?

Special interests still (and presumably always will) rule the halls of Congress. These people are not working for you, as you showed up in droves to elect them to, but for the same old army of lobbyists and fellow back-scratchers. Imperialistic crooks and losers still roam freely about the Capitol.

Speaker Pelosi apparently isn’t serious about cleaning up corruption either, or she wouldn’t try to protect fellow members from investigation. In the recent case of Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson who was caught on tape by the FBI accepting a $100,000 bribe, she took exception to the FBI searching Jefferson’s office. She and former Speaker Dennis Hastert both tried to claim documents seized at the Congressman’s office were taken illegally, citing “separation of powers.”

So Pelosi is obviously very interested in protecting here cronies from investigation. Boy, that’s serious reform! Seriously, the gall!

West Virginia Democratic Congressman Alan Mollohan recently stepped down from the House ethics committee because of a probe by federal agents looking into his steering funds into nonprofit groups he founded.

That’s right folks, the former ranking member of the House ETHICS committee!

According to Dick Morris, former advisor to President Clinton, Congressman Mollohan’s personal assets rose from less than $500,000 to more than $8 million just between 2001 and 2005. And that’s on a $162,500 congressional salary. He steered $5 million in federal funds to one of his nonprofit organizations. His comment? He saw “no conflict of interest.” In the past decade, he directed more than $250 million to nonprofit organizations he created in his native state, according to Morris. You might want to reread that.

But he’s not alone. Here are a few more of your legislatures under recent investigation:

Sen. Ted Stevens (AK), Rep. Don Young (AK), Rep. John Doolittle (CA), Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA), Rep. Gary Miller (CA) and Rep. Rick Renzi (AZ), all Republicans.

You wanted change when you went to the polls in November? You rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic.

JD.