Neal Boortz
January 2, 2000

The "spoiler" in the presidential election was a fictitious character, President Josiah Bartlet of NBC's "The West Wing," according to Lippman. "For while 'The West Wing' is reliably liberal on major issues, it makes a counterproductive pact with its almost 20 million viewers: Stay home, surrender to this fantasy of a Democratic president who never abandons his principles and skip the real thing."

There's more. The pivotal episode last fall was when Bartlet was shot by a fictitious hate group called West Virginia Pride. A state senator urged a boycott of NBC, and the Charlestown Gazette ran an item in a Nov. 6 column, the day before the election. Then West Virginia went to the Republicans for only the fourth time in the 20th century. Gore could have won the presidency if he'd taken that state's five Electoral College votes.

I never thought I'd be grateful to liberal Hollywood for anything. But a morally unshakable, fictional Democratic president sure puts the real-life Democratic Party to shame.

Meanwhile, it seems the real-life Democratic president doesn’t want to leave the White House.

The word from Judicial Watch, which typically has some good sources, is that Bill Clinton doesn't really intend to leave White House property come Jan. 20.

Those sources say Clinton plans to use office space in government townhouses across the street from the White House. The space, in a Jackson Place townhouse once used by Teddy Roosevelt after he left office, is a part of the White House complex. Since then, however, the space has been used by the current administration.

How pathetic! Other presidents, seeing that their time has passed, just packed up and left like good tenants whose lease has expired. But Bill Clinton can't do that. He has to retain a presence in Washington, or he's nothing. He's a power-obsessed demagogue who can't bear to leave the nation's spotlight.

The next White House tenant is already bending.

President-elect George W. Bush and his advisers have decided that the opposition to his school voucher plan would be too much to overcome.

Instead, their education plans will consist of two major areas: increased education flexibility for states and annual testing of government-schooled students – none of which addresses the fundamental problem with government education, namely, the fact that a government that can't do anything right is running this country's education system.

The school voucher issue could have been such a victory for Bush and the Republicans. They could have gone on the offensive and undertaken a massive PR campaign to convince Americans that school vouchers are needed to save this country's failing education system. They could have shown the country that the Democrats and civil rights activists, in their opposition to school vouchers, are standing in the schoolhouse doors, trying to prevent students from escaping to a better education.

The Republicans could have handed the Democrats their big-government asses. But recent school voucher initiatives in California and Michigan failed in November, and a federal appeals court ruled against Cleveland's voucher program. So the GOP, with the Democrats still in revenge mode, decided to take the easy path and not listen to supporters of vouchers.

Dubya's not in office yet and already he's knuckling under to the Democrats. It's just a preview of things to come over the next four years, unless the Republicans somehow, miraculously, grow backbones.

Democrats vs. Ashcroft

The Democrats don't like George W. Bush's conservative choice for attorney general one bit.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer doesn't like John Ashcroft because he's worried that Ashcroft would not enforce federal laws to which he's morally opposed – for instance, a ban on violence by pro-lifers and laws restricting gun ownership.

My God! John Ashcroft actually believes Americans have the right to use guns to defend themselves! He actually believes that the federal government should not restrict a right guaranteed to Americans under the Second Amendment! The horror!

Jesse Jackson, the NAACP and Tom Daschle don't like John Ashcroft because he doesn't kowtow to the civil rights agenda. They wonder publicly whether he'll enforce civil rights laws, hate-crime laws and gender-equity laws. Kweisi Mfume points to Ashcroft's "F" grade on the last three NAACP report cards.

This despite the fact that Ashcroft, as governor of Missouri, signed into law a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.; established the state's only historic site honoring a black individual; created an award in honor of George Washington Carver; named a black woman to a state judgeship; and led the fight to save Lincoln University, which was founded by black soldiers.

Soon his detractors will be looking in Ashcroft's linen closet for white sheets. This is character assassination, pure and simple.

To the Democrats and civil rights whores, it's their way or the highway. John Ashcroft would be a roadblock to their dreams of a socialist state. And they're still sore over losing the presidency. So John Ashcroft has to go.

And, by the way, Colin Powell’s parents are from Jamaica, so why does the media continue to refer to him as an African-American? Isn’t it time to end this hyphenated American nonsense?

Neal Boortz is the hugely popular nationally syndicated radio host.

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