Happy Days Are Here Again

Column originally published 11-9-06

Democrats owe a lot to the GOP
By Kelvin Wade

What an ignominious fall. The national Republican Party should receive the newly minted Foley-Haggard Award for self-immolation. The Democrats took back the House and probably the Senate in what President Bush described as a “thumpin’.”

President Bush spoke Wednesday but all I could hear was, “Quack, quack, quack!” from this lame duck. While his words were congratulatory and conciliatory, his tone was defiant. And borrowing from the Dixie Chicks, I don’t know if after years of one party rule the Democrats are “ready to make nice.”

The election finally forced the President to sack Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Eight retired generals had called for his resignation. Contrary to Bush’s praise, it’s been obvious that Rumsfeld has done a lousy job handling both Afghanistan and Iraq. Bob Woodward’s excellent “State of Denial” paints Rumsfeld as a deeply resented micromanaging megalomaniac. This president can’t seem to change course or revise tactics unless there’s a gun to his head.

Now President Bush says he wants to work with Democrats. What stopped him the last six years? This President has engaged in irresponsible rhetoric equating a Democratic victory with the terrorists winning. So when he says in his press conference this week that he doesn’t want to divide the country into red and blue, he’s too late.

His rhetoric and tactics makes Democrats wary of trusting him enough to work with him.

This election saw the end of the divisive Bush-Rove vote-for-us-or-die scare tactics that they used so successfully in the 2002 and 2004 elections. From the inept, clueless campaign the Republicans ran this year, you’d think the Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator was calling the shots.

Democrats need to reach out and thank the Republicans for this victory. Without their incompetence in handling the Iraq war, mishandling Katrina, turning the people’s house into a cesspool of corruption while spending like the tax-and-spend liberal Democrats they were supposedly saving us from, the Dems would’ve never won.

In the past six years there’s been a collapse of Congressional oversight. It’s not hyperbole to say that it imperils the nation when one of our branches of government abdicates its responsibility as a check on the others.

The GOP meltdown holds a lesson for Democrats. The party that rode to power in 1994 on a wave of fiscal responsibility and family values became seduced with power and lost their way, doubling the national debt and drowning in hypocrisy and scandal.

Democrats should work with Bush where they can. We should see good moderate legislation being passed. In areas where no compromise is possible, Democrats should dig in their heels and prevent this president from doing any more damage to the country.

Democratic gloating shouldn’t go on too long. Their ascension is meant to be a wake up call to Bush and the Republicans, not necessarily an endorsement of the Democrats. So it’s up to Dems to responsibly fulfill their oversight task.

The tree of liberty has been refreshed with the political blood of patriots and tyrants and America is the victor.

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