Neither have I.
But after the power shift in congress last year, there may be some hope. Dems
have tasted power and control and are now eating their own. The liberal controlled
congress has the lowest ratings in history, twice as low as Bush…and in record
time. Sure they don't have the super majority needed to override vetoes and the 60
votes needed to pass Senate approval, but when they ran they promised to end the
war. In cased you're from Branson, the war is still on.
On the other hand, a closely defeated 2000 presidential candidate, Al Gore, has
triumphantly made it back to the White House. Bill's ex-VP was invited by President
Bush, along with a gaggle of other Nobel Prize winners and then cordoned off for a
40-minute private audience.
Bush has a knack of embracing those who are particularly nasty toward him. Take
the one-way love fest between him and Senator Teddy Kennedy, or his cordiality
toward Nancy Pelosi.
Why isn't this civility reciprocated?
I trace it back to that fateful 2000 election, as aggravated by Bill Clinton's
impeachment.
What snapped in the minds and hearts of our lefty friends when this election was
finally conceded by Gore?
Contrarians drink to remember
For the sake of a little self examination, let's declare opposite day at the Y2K polls.
How would I feel if Gore had won the same way; a 5-4 Supreme Court decision
blocking further recounts when Gores' lead was in the hundreds? What if Bush won
the popular vote? Also, what if my suspicions of cheatin' were exasperated by
Florida Governor Seymour Gore, Al's brother? Then we have to pretend that the
Democrat Florida Secretary of State, Anita Vote, was in charge of stopping all
recounts. Yeah, I'd be ticked too...for a little while.
But then consider that my candidate would have been VP for eight years under a
controversial, yet popular president.
After my initial misgivings I'd ask how my guy could be so incompetent that the
election came down to those few hundred votes. I'd reflect back on the three
debates he lost.
How can you ID a politician in a snowball fight?
He's the one throwing curveballs.
Then, I THINK, I'd get over it. The one thing certain in American politics is that there
are cheaters on all sides. The election frauds have gone on since the country was
founded. I'm not going out on a limb when I predict the thievery will go on.
Author Andrew Gumbel explains the US history of close and controversial elections
in his book, Steal This Vote. He points out that John Quincy Adams lifted the
election from Andrew Jackson in 1824; Rutherford Hayes cheated his way to the
1876 election at the expense of Samuel Tilden. In 1960 John F. Kennedy, using
father Joe's connections with the Mob, bought off West Virginia to pilfer the
nomination from Hubert Humphrey. Then through the miracles of the Daley led
Illinois Democratic Party, hundreds of thousands were resurrected from the dead to
vote the donkey ticket. Yep, we didn't have Richard Nixon to kick around for another
eight years.
Being from Chicago, I can identify with the Kennedy election.
My ancestors are restored to life every four years, but only to vote. Without having
consulted their favorite and possibly only conservative son, they voted for the latest
"Daley" for mayor and whatever other democratic flak was running for office,
including the presidency. They never even stopped by for cake and coffee! Oy Vey!!
Now that should really tick me off! But hey, I've found that the best cure for an old
grudge is a bad memory; almost as appalling as the Clintons' forgetting their
positions on the Iraqi war.
The moral to this story is when you have your opponent struggling for election air
put a garden hose down his throat.
