Barrett Kalellis
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

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  Thus Senator Charles Schumer has become the "go-to guy" to coordinate and lead the charge against Bush's Supreme Court nominations, along with sidelines cheering by Senators Kennedy and Leahy.

On foreign policy, the hit men are Joe Biden, Kennedy, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, whose carping about the administration's Iraq war policies range from Kennedy's "a plot hatched in Texas" scenario to Pelosi's "failed war" and "grotesque mistake" characterizations, and the universal call for a "timetable for withdrawal."

Even John Conyers, a longtime feckless congressional drone — grasping petitions garnered by leftist MoveOn.org members — eagerly holds hearings on the "Downing Street Memos," trying to stir up anti-war mud.

Like burned-out tubes in a radio, these congressional leaders replace each other to attack Bush on other issues: Reid and Pelosi refuse to engage in Social Security reform unless private account options are "off the table"; Kennedy throws spitballs at Republican House Leader Tom DeLay, claiming he should "return to Texas and serve his (criminal) time; and Pelosi, a particularly shrill partisan, claims that Bush's "distorted priorities" and "irresponsible tax cuts" are deliberately aimed at short-changing Hispanics and blacks.

All the while, DNC Chairman "Screamin'" Howard Dean runs around the country making wild speeches, accusing Republicans of all things bad — almost to the point of causing the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

Perhaps no other recent issue, or non-issue, has made the Democratic Party look more ridiculous than the partisan media-driven flap about the Valerie Plame "leak" and presidential adviser Karl Rove's statement to a reporter.

Even though Rove did nothing wrong, and was actually trying to help the reporter, the Democrats see this nothing-burger as another great opportunity to damage the administration, even though polls indicate that the public just doesn't give a damn.

When Rove's name was mentioned in the press, the very next day, losing Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, now reduced to buffoon-like appearances, called for Rove to be fired immediately — no investigation, no hearing, no nothing. More Democrats piled on: Schumer, Kennedy, Pelosi, Joe Wilson (Plame's husband). Still other senators — Biden, Rockefeller, Reid and Durbin — insisted that Rove's security clearance be taken away.

This desperate, knee-jerk spectacle simply reveals a party in denial, a party that has been so demoralized after losing two presidential elections and 10 Senate seats, that it can't add anything positive to the public discourse and therefore engages in never-ending attempts to tear down, belittle and insult President Bush and his policies on every occasion.

Do these politicians think they look like statesmen in these constant endeavors? Other than warm the cockles of the hearts of certain far-left interest groups, do they think that the American people want this kind of governance?

On the contrary, the Democrats apparently think that they can win converts and voters with more and more vitriol. Just look at the press releases posted on the Democratic National Committee's Web site. Reading like a tabloid newspaper, the site is awash in provocative and inflammatory headlines: "Karl Rove Scandal Machine Comes to Minnesota"; "Why Won't Bush Come Clean on CAFTA Cover-Up?" and "Roberts a Federalist Society Leader, Despite Denials."

Poor John Roberts. Since the Democrats can't find anything really damaging about him to savage his nomination to the court, they are trying the "guilt by association" maneuver, equating, almost, his participation in high-minded Federalist Society events to midnight gatherings of the Ku Klux Klan.

I would think that Americans would by now have had their bellies full of these blatant and never-ending political machinations. One would think that in this parlous time of war, when terrorist bombs are killing and maiming innocent civilians overseas — and may very well find their way here — that the minority party would act in the spirit of coming together, putting aside partisan squabbles to focus on defeating the common enemy of free people everywhere.

However, as presently constituted, the Democratic Party has really only one message: "We've lost our majority power and we want it back!" Reasonable Americans might conclude that this message is neither a necessary nor sufficient reason for voting Democrats back into office, let alone into leadership positions.

Barrett Kalellis is a Michigan-based columnist and writer whose articles appear regularly in various local and national print and online publications. He may be reached at kalellis@newsmax.com.

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