Weekly Podium: "Same Song, Now They're Just the Majority"

I am assuming that W.R. Marshall's "Dull Ache" has received some Tylenol, courtesy of this year's election.

Now that the jubulation has died down amongst the Democrats, liberal media, and the numerous contributors to the Augusta Free Press whose political opinions only seem to pop up around election time(see you in two years, guys), it's time to take a look at some of the murmurs and quiet commotion that you're starting to hear in the background while the celebration of the "Death of the Evil GOP" enters it's twilight hours.

Let's start at the top of the Democratic food chain. It seemed so simple, the Dems would take the House and march in unison to the Capitol itself, carrying Nancy Pelosi on their shoulders as if she were Julius Caesar returning to Rome. Just as the Dems reached the steps of the Capitol, things ground to a halt as we've discovered some dissention in the ranks.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is competing with John "Let's Pull Out The Troops Because Diplomacy Always Works With Terrorists" Murtha for the position of House Majority Leader. Soon-to-be-Speaker Pelosi has endorsed her close ally Murtha in an attempt to eliminate her old rival Hoyer from Party leadership. Personally, couldn't the Dems find someone a little more non-partisan? I mean, we all know that John Murtha is one of the most disliked politicians in the eyes of conservatives, so it is thought that Murtha will not win over Hoyer, who helped campaign for many of the victorious Dems in the recent election.

Of course, this is the same Steny Hoyer who endorsed Ben Cardin over Kwesi Mfume in the Maryland Senate Primary because he didn't believe the Dems could win with Mfume opposing another black candidate, Michael Steele. The same Steny Hoyer who stated that the African-American Steele "slavishly" supported the Republican party.

It's people like Hoyer that are members of a party that claims to be "looking out for all the minorities"(read: we make sure we get the Gay/Black/Jewish/Feminist vote by catering to their special interest groups, and painting the GOP as racist old white men). Yet, seem to play the race card either implicitly or explicitly as often as possible without any reprimand from the media. Need proof? Why is it that Hoyer's "slavish" remarks were quickly and quietly shelved while 3rd-person hearsay about George Allen's use of racial epithets were covered by the media with a fervor equal to the second coming of Jesus Christ himself?

Moving on...

I'm really sick. No, I haven't fallen victim from Mother Nature's violent mood swing from Indian Summer(or should I say "Native-American Summer" for the PC people in the crowd?) to bone-chilling precipitation. I've grown sick of the endless statements that read "Americans overwhelmingly voted for change" and "Virginia was decidedly in favor of ridding Bush's lackey George Allen" and other statements, would someone show me an "overwhelming" victory for the Dems in any other key race besides the Pennsylvania senate seat held by Rick Santorum? I guess winning with a margin of less than 0.4% of the vote is a landslide in Democrat terms, which mean's JFK's win over Nixon in 1960 must've been a blowout of epic proportions.

Anyway, I challenge these contributors to keep up this intense fervor in their writing. After reading Erik Curren's "The bad guys lost" article(AFP, 11/13/2006), he seems to be contemplating retirement...well, until the Republicans come back in office, because then he'll have something to complain about. So here's to you and your favorite party, Erik, may we endure at least 2 years of Democratic cries for higher taxes, an emboldened ACLU, and a spineless, UN-appeasing foreign policy. And in return...Toyota enjoys higher sales of the ugly-as-sin Prius sedan. Huzzah!

All this talk about the "joys of democracy" only comes about when the Democrats win...otherwise, it's "we need to change the Constitution".

Interesting statistic from CNN's exit polls on the Allen-Webb Senate race. I noticed that Webb pulled the majority in the vote with people with either incomes below $30,000, or above $100,000. So the middle class(between $30,000 and $100,000) decided Allen was a better candidate. Interesting, considering the fact that the Democrats label Republicans as crooked politicians who only cater to the rich. Yet, the rich(well, higher-income groups at least) voted Democratic. As for the less-fortunate? Well, considering the amount of rhetoric targeted at the lower-income class of citizens about how awful the Republicans are towards them...it's no wonder they continually vote for the Democrats.

Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island had a 62% approval rating on Election Day, and still lost the election due to the (R) next to his name. How sad is the state of politics when people gave a man such great approval ratings, and still vote him out of office due to his party affiliation. Talk about hypocritical...but then again, Rhode Island is one of those lovely liberal states of New England, hypocrisy is a common practice among them.

Well, now that I've done some Donkey-bashing, let me do some Elephant-smacking also.

I will say this very loud and very clear so you people can hear me. George Allen dug his own grave. The man could've easily won this election. Jim Webb was running a mediocre-at-best campaign with little national funding, and the election was to be a chip-shot for Allen. However, his continual self-destruction during the campaign leads me to believe that maybe this was a good thing, as now the Republicans can have a candidate to challenge Jim Webb in 6 years that won't crack under pressure. To use an equation for sports fans out there, George Allen = Mike Vanderjagt.

George W. Bush is doing the right thing at this moment, he's open to new ideas for Iraq and is reaching out to the new Democratic leaders. However, I think we all know that firing Donald Rumsfeld was an act that should have taken place pre-election(and don't tell me Rumsfeld "resigned", we all know what that really means). Normally, I would agree that Bush had the right idea with promoting a sense of continuity and solidarity among his party...but Bush's low approval ratings are, to some degree, Rumsfeld's fault. He had the President's ear when it came to Iraq, and he made sure that his voice was heard above all. The man fell upon the GOP like a wet blanket, and his departure should make way for some progress.

All-in-all, what this election did is eliminate Republican dead weight(Mark DeWine, Bill Frist, Mark Foley, and others) and kick the party where it needs to be...just far enough right of the proverbial fence to give them an indentity, but much more moderate than they had been pointing in the past. The Democrats, despite all the mosaics they paint, are too far left to do this country any good in the long run. That will show over the next several years, as Republicans and moderate Democrats will become key players and elected officials over the next several years.

Finally, I hope that Jim Webb's supposedly "conservative Democrat" stance holds true, and he can become a voice of reason in a fairly unreasonable party. However, after watching him win an election due to an uninspiring campaign and a massive political meltdown by his opponent, I'm more inclined to believe that while Jim Webb might've been a solid military man for the Navy, he'll become a solid political robot for the Democrats.

As I close this tirade, many of you have come to a couple of conclusions. One may be that I'm a Republican(nay, I am a registered Independent, and I lean Libertarian), and the other may be that I am some sort of antagonist. Well, you are free to believe as you wish, but I will tell you that I am of the belief that in order to challenge a position, you have to challenge those who promote the position, as well. Hence why you'll hear me call out the names of columnists. Whether it be Erik Curren or W.R. Marshall at the Augusta Free Press, or the Paul Krugman's and Al Franken's of the world, I will challenge the thinking of these writers just as they challenge the thinking of those who oppose them, or the politicians they don't like.

I will not shy away from those who disagree with me, either. I'm free and open to debate with you, the reader, as well. Not only am I a contributor to the AFP, but I am also an avid reader. I know that I will receive positive and negative letters about my words. I'm not just expecting them, I'm encouraging them. My goal is not only to spew forth my opinion(whether you like it or not), but my goal is to provoke thought that counters much of the same-song drivel that you, the reader, may be taking in on a daily basis.