George Bush: Best. Democratic strategist. EVER.

Remember back before the congressional elections last November? Remember how so many well-wishing rightwing pundits were so full of concern that they offered all kinds of advice to the Democrats about what they needed to do in order to appeal to the American electorate?

Remember how utterly, fantastically wrong all of those concern trolls were? Yeah. What a shock.

It can be safely said that the November 2006 elections clearly demonstrated that whatever a Republic advises Democrats to do “for their own good,” or “for the good of the country,” Democrats should do exactly the opposite.

Well, today President Bush gave Democrats some very specific directions. And Democrats – at least, those Democrats who value good advice about winning elections – should do exactly the opposite of what the president suggests:

The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq.

– and then he gave the whole thing away when he admitted,

And yet there’s important work to be done on behalf of the American people.

Guess what that important work is? Thanks for pointing it out for us, Mr. President.

This is how fearful the Republics are. In spite of tremendous frustration by many (myself not least among them), the Democratic Congress in the past ten months has caused sufficient aggravation to the Republics so that nearly the first words out of the Whiner-in-Chief’s mouth today were complaints about investigations and efforts to end the occupation of Iraq.

Does that tell you anything?

Look, here’s the deal, congressional Democrats – and I’m not gonna say this again:

STRENGTH SELLS.

chumley, putting it in the context of Democratic presidential candidates, said it very well in his outstanding post today:

You know what, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards, and Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Dodd?  If you’re tough on the incredibly unpopular Bush and Cheney — and I mean merciless — people will get that you’re plenty tough enough to be President.  It will only help you with voters to smack down this hysterical bullshit which says that our country is in grave danger from Iran, and do it without apology.

Back in the heady days of the brand-new 110th Congress, when those of us who worked so hard to put Democrats in power believed that anything was possible, I wrote a diary entitled, Running in ’08? Try Impeachment®, now with added Pragmatism®!

It was my naïve belief that the new Democratic Congress, while it would unquestionably do the simple and obvious things – like ending the occupation of Iraq, repealing the military commissions act, restoring FISA, reaffirming habeas corpus, putting back in place environmental protections, and generally saying “No” to the excesses of the BushCheney administration – might yet be persuaded to recognize, not only the pre-eminent constitutional imperative of impeachment, but also the political efficacy of utilizing Congress’s constitutional tool for bringing to heel an out-of-control executive branch.

So, while all of the other items on the to-do list seemed so obvious, so self-evident and so right that there was no doubt in my mind that the Democratic Congress would Do The Right Thing regarding those, I was merely hopeful about impeachment.

But based on their actions over the past 10 months, apparently Democrats are not concerned about being reelected next November.  Almost without exception, as a group, Democrats have failed to Do The Right Thing –  and, significantly, The Right Thing in each of these cases is the thing that will get them reelected. George Bush pretty much came out and said so today.

Here’s a reminder for Democrats in Congress (since so many of them seem to have forgotten this, if they ever realized it):

The goal of Democratic voters in the 2006 elections was not to win the 2008 elections.

Let me repeat that:

The goal of Democratic voters in the 2006 elections was not to win the 2008 elections.

The main goal of the voters in 2006 was to address the rampant corruption perpetrated by the Republic party upon this country for the previous six years, and to end the occupation of Iraq.

Are Democratic “leaders” interested in getting re-elected, or interested in protecting the Constitution, and serving the expressed desire of the voters?

Happily, they can do both. Yes, we are living in auspicious times, a veritable Harmonic Convergence of political events – we are witnessing a serendipitous intersection of What’s Right and What’s Politically Expedient.

You say you’re fearful about your re-election prospects in 2008? Well, fear this:

YOU. WILL. LOSE. UNLESS. YOU. SHOW. SOME. SPINE. PERIOD.

If you’re running in a red district, don’t run against the Republics – that is, against the mere fact that your opponent is a Republic. Run against what the Republics have done wrong to this country – there’s a whole mess of Republics who will be right there with you on that issue.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why it is that Democrats have such a hard time understanding such a simple concept.

I have talked to people from all across the political spectrum about this. Without exception, the one thing that they all say is that Democrats lack spine.

I ran into my friend Jack at the gym today, a friend I had not seen in many months. He’s an ex-Marine, a combat veteran, a former Republic and a clear thinker. He has been as frustrated with the Democratic 110th Congress as I have been. He said he has even been thinking about changing his registration to Independent.

He does not understand why the Democrats have not repudiated the terrible things the Republics have done to the country in the past six years. He does not understand how the Democrats could have possibly agreed to make things worse by voting to expand warrantless wiretapping, or how they can even think of granting the telephone companies immunity for their crimes. He sees the occupation of Iraq as tragic, illegal and inexcusable.

Jack is no squishy liberal. A successful small businessman, he gripes about the patent unfairness of the Alternative Minimum Tax. He comes from a military family – his father served in World War II, including in the Battle of the Bulge. His father used to pester him about why he didn’t fly the flag any more; he explained that the wrongs done in the name of the United States under this administration wouldn’t allow him to. His father didn’t use to understand; about three years ago, Jack said, his father stopped pestering him – he, too, understood why.

And there are lots more like Jack. I work with a guy – call him Dave – who is a Vietnam vet, a former F-4 pilot and a former Republican. He has been an Independent for many years, but the gelatinous performance of the Democrats in the 110th Congress has frustrated him almost to the breaking point. If there were a Ralph Nader in the presidential race, he might vote for him. Dave is begging for a reason – a compelling reason – to vote for a Democrat. He will probably vote for a Democrat, anyway – but he will hold his nose doing so.

Is this all we’ve got? A bunch of cowardly, quivering, spineless representatives who suffered a world-record case of collective amnesia on November 8, 2006? Who forgot why the American people voted for them the day before?

It’s not like the to-do list was very complicated. It consisted of two items:

That’s it. Pretty simple.

And what would that look like? Well,

Yes, the “to-do” list back in November was very simple. But, based on the actions of congressional Democrats since they took office in January, one can only infer that either: (a) they forgot what they were elected to do; (b) they are unable to do what they were elected to do; (c) they are unwilling to do what they were elected to do; or (d) some combination of all three.

In any event, if they continue NOT to do what they were elected to do, our choice as voters is clear.

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