People we just did what they said - repeatedly - we couldn't do. We have just crushed the Gingrich Revolution into dust. What I'm thinking right now is Permanent Republican Minority, because lets be honest - people didn't vote the Democrats in - they voted the Republcans out. They took out moderate anti-War Republicans like Chaffee and Dewine just to make sure they lost power. Period.
After $500 Billion being tossed out like the morning trash in Iraq, after Katrina and practically no hearings, after Downing Street, after NSAT&T, after Terri Schiavo, Gitmo, Habaes Corpus and Due Process on a stick, the nation finally screamed -- ENOUGH!
And it was a beautiful sound to hear.
What we've learned over the last six years, and particularly the last two - is that these bastard's can't be trusted.
I for one do not believe that it is simply in the nature of holding power that corruption festers. It's also in the nature of ones character, and in the natura of ones worldview.
We saw the character of the Gingrichians when they nearly caused the country to default on it's loans by refusing to raise the debt ceiling in 1995. If President Clinton's then Treasury Secretary hadn't done some fast and furious money shifting THIS COUNTRY WOULD HAVE GONE INTO DEFAULT simply to satify their rabid lust for tax cuts.
It was clear then that their primary desire was to generate tax kickbacks to their pals, cronies, buddies and donors. The Hiltons. The Lays. The Skillings. The Trumps. The Blue Blooded American Aristocrat Money Whore Dilitants were and are the only true masters of the Republican Party.
Oh sure, they provided plenty of lip service and red meat to the Christian "Wackos" (via Mike Scanlon and David Kuo), siddling up to people like Randal Terry, they exploited every young female blonde in jeapardy ™, baited every gay-basher they could find, played the Deliverance Card all through the south, but they were simply using all of them to service one thing - their own greed.
It was all about greed. Greed, Power and self-gratification. It's a story that ran through Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney, Safavian, (ex White House Domestic Policy Head Claude) Allen, Gannon/Guckert, Haggard, Foley, Reynolds, Hastert and Tom DeLay.
Now Those Days are Over. America wanted them out! They're toast.
In the last days of the election there were definate signs that every rat in the elephant boat was looking for their own personal dingy. The outcome was truly never in doubt (and I'm proud to say I predicted a 30-seat pickup in the house over 3 weeks ago)
From Vanity Fair you had the neo-con Architects of the Iraq War ready to fire the Contractors - Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney - for building a broken house.
As he looks into my eyes, speaking slowly and with obvious deliberation, Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity," Perle says now, adding that total defeat--an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic "failed state"--is not yet inevitable but is becoming more likely. "And then," says Perle, "you'll get all the mayhem that the world is capable of creating."
According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.... At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.... I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."
To people like Pearle and Frum, it wasn't that the idea of invading an unarmed nation was fucking stupid thing to do - it was a problem with "execution". Er right. How 'bout admitting that there was problem with Both, eh sparky?
Not likely.
The American Conservative Magazine, run by that xenophobic nutbag Pat Buchanan, actually endorsed the Democrats.
They lost the fiscal conservatives with their run-away spending. They lost the social conservatives with their blatant hypocrasy. They lost the Christian Right with their closeted gay self-loathing. They lost the War Hawks with their total combat command incompetence.
There were hundreds of reasons to toss this Congress under the bus, back up and hit 'em again.
And you can't say that Republicans didn't fight back. Hard.
They pulled every trick in the book, then went and got a few new books. You had Radio Host Laura Ingraham endorsing the phone jamming of a voter protection hotline. Massive Robo-calling by the NRCC all over the country (which eerily targeted vulnerable Republican Districts). Phony Voter ID requirements in Georgia. Voter intimidation in Virginia.
We fought back - with a massive Election Protection campaign, and organizations such as Video the Vote. (Who actually interviewed me in my capacity as a Poll Worker over the issue of housing Voting Machines in my home for over a week).
This time we were ready for their B.S.
Still some of these efforts were effective. We saw great candidates like Tammy Duckworth and Harold Ford Jr. (whose concession speach was truly inspiring) taken down.
But on the other hand seeing Rick "Man on Dog/Yeah sure we found WMD's" Sanitorium hitting the mat for a 10 count was more than worth the price of admission.
Does it sound like I'm gloating? Damn straight. I'm doing the Snoopy Dance on the grave of Bush/Gingrich's Legacy. Cue Linus. Time to boogey down.
We've got a lot of work ahead of us dismantling and fixing all of Bush and the Gopers massive fuck-ups. The Minimum Wage, Health Care, Alternative Energy Developement, Gulf Coast Recovery, The Deficit and Social Security Solvency - not to mention the Wars on Iraq, Terror and American Liberty which still need to be fought and each - Won.
Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We may not always be happy with the results, but two things are for sure...
Dems couldn't possibly do a worse job than the GOP has for the past 6 years - and we can't EVER let them get back into Power again.
Vyan
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