Democratic Head-Fake - (...."it's the only move they have" says Herman Cain! Excellent piece!)

In basketball, the head-fake move is used to temporarily distract your opponent. The head-faker, the player with the ball, first gets his opponent to commit to one direction on the court. When his opponent falls for the fake, the head-faker can dribble right around him to score.

Congressional Democrats have attempted more head-fakes in recent weeks than Michael Jordan ever did in an entire season. Their Republican counterparts would be wise not to fall for these calculated issue deceptions.

The head-fakes began with Democratic Party Committee Chairman Howard Dean calling Republicans the “white Christian Party” and stating that they have “never made an honest living in their lives.” He is now making the nonsensical argument that unless Republicans vow their support for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act – which doesn’t expire until 2007 – they have no business courting African-American voters.

Other head-fakes include Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) stating, “There has never been an administration more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda.” Mrs. Clinton apparently suffers from short-term memory loss. And besides, President Bush’s agenda has produced a strong economy with consistent GDP growth. That’s not memory loss by the Democrats. That’s denial.

Senate Democrats such as Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Joe Biden (D-DE) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have attempted to shift the focus away from restructuring the failing Social Security program to the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility. With no evidence to support their near treasonous claims, they have compared Guantanamo to Hitler’s concentration camps, Stalin’s gulags, and Pol Pot’s killing fields. Durbin even compared American soldiers’ interrogation techniques of known terrorists to the Nazi’s treatment of concentration camp prisoners.

Most recently, House Democrats ventured into what the Washington Post called “the land of make-believe.” Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and a contingent of his Democratic colleagues took over a Capitol conference room and pretended to lead a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee. This is consistent with the Democrats pretending to care more about the public, when in fact they only care about their political party.

Bush’s primary goal this year has been to educate the public and Congress about the Social Security crisis. The president has shown tireless leadership traveling the country and explaining to members of Congress that progressively indexing benefits and enacting optional personal accounts for younger workers will solve the crisis. Accurate polls show that over 60 percent of the public favors giving younger workers the option of placing their payroll taxes in a personal investment account.

Until recently, Congressional Democrats have played a unified defense against nearly every major Republican legislative proposal. Almost every Democrat has publicly opposed optional personal accounts, and most opposed the president’s judicial nominees. Polls conducted by even the most liberal media outlets show, however, that the public is tiring of the Democrats’ obstructionist strategy. The public wants solutions, but the Democrats won’t even acknowledge we have problems.

The Democratic Party leadership knows that it would be political suicide to offer any solution this late in the debate to fixing the Social Security solvency crisis. Any suggestion of a solution – even raising tax rates, their standard solution to every problem – would amount to acknowledging they were wrong that even the slightest crisis exists. Democrats framed their position from the beginning around denying the presence of a crisis, not around a solution.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, they did not count on the president’s dogged determination to change the Social Security structure. The president’s relentlessness on Social Security is a problem for Democrats, for it forces them to either continue to deny a crisis exists, or to change the national political debate and focus on other issues. They have chosen the latter option – the head-fake.

The Democrats also did not count on an ever increasing percentage of the public waking up to the fact that there is a crisis. Voters are not as dumb as Democrats think.

The Democrats may have thought they had a sure-fire winning strategy in opposing any changes to the dysfunctional Social Security structure. They will soon find, though, that their obstructionist, head-fake tactics will backfire. The American public overwhelmingly supports aggressive solutions to fixing Social Security, and does not take kindly to members of Congress comparing their fighting boys and girls to murdering Nazis and communists.

The Democrats, as the president might say, “misunderestimated” their opponents. As usual, they also insulted the public’s intelligence and underestimated the demand to fix Social Security and overhaul the tax code – the crumbling pillars of our nation’s economic infrastructure.

Congressional Democrats will no doubt continue the head-fake strategy right up to Election Day 2006. It is the only move they have.

"They seem to be saying: we can't advance the ball down the court, it might upset the Washington Post."

Well...they may be saying that above when they aren't passing all of the following:

Presidency of George W. Bush -- the first 48 months

President Bush signing a federal ban on Partial Birth Abortion

Banned Partial Birth Abortion

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy
Stopped foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions.

Supported and upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals

Signed E.O. reversing Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules that would have shut down every home business in America

First Missile is Installed For NMD on July 23, 2004
Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses

Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first ten ABM silos in Alaska and California so that America has a defense against North Korean nukes
The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (less romantically known as H.R. 5382) ultimately allows average Americans to hitch a ride on a civilian space craft at their own risk. The federal ban on such citizen travel was repealed by HR 5382 in 2004. The President signed that bill into law two days before Christmas.
President Bush pledged to Israel on 4/14/2004 that it could keep parts of the West Bank, giving international legitimacy to Jewish settlements there
Denied Palestinian refugees any right of return to what is now Israel, saying they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state instead
Part of coalition (Russia, Israel, EU, Palestine, USA) for Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace"
Pushed through THREE raises for our military

Increased Defense Dept funding which had deteriorated during the previous 8 years
President Bush's Grand Strategy (click here)

President Bush's Environmental Record - 2004 (click here)
Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers

Ordered Attorney-General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, NOT a leftist-imagined *collective* right

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e. the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty)
Signed the 2004 Omnibus Budget 1/26/2004 that now MANDATES that gun buyers' background check information be fully and permanently destroyed within 24 hours of the completion of the check, no matter what.
Repealed Gun Controls Against Active, Retired, and Off-Duty Law Enforcement Personnel Carrying Weapons Into Local and State Prohibited Zones (7/28/2004)

Enacted powerful tort reform legislation that moves many class action lawsuits from state to federal courts. Requires federal courts to hear cases where the amount of the dispute is more than $5 million, and when the defendant and any of the plaintiffs live in different states.

Disarmed Libya of its Chemical, Nuclear, and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed
Won an agreement that U.S. Navy sailors may now freely board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction under a landmark pact between the United States and Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry (signed Feb 11, 2004), and Panama 5/10/2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/international/americas/11ship.html).
Approves The First U.S. Counter-Intel Plan

Successfully executed 2 wars and rebuilt 2 nations: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50+ million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom...epitomized by their own free and democratic elections.
Provided Billions in aid, machines, and manpower to tsunami victims.

Executed a WAR ON TERROR by getting world-wide cooperation to track funds/terrorists (has cut off much of the terrorist's funding and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network)
Bush Administration diplomacy led to the 5/25/2004 peace accord that ended a massive 20-year civil war between Sudan's Islamic north and Christian south after two million deaths Click Here
Delivered vital emergency aid to millions of survivors on multiple continents (e.g. Africa, SE Asia) of a devastating Tsunami caused by a 9.1 earthwuake near Sumatra.

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia

Initiated comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE was critical.
Created NATO's Rapid Response Force
Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the Presidency

Reorganized bureaucracy...after 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency: the Department of Homeland Security.

Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.

Improving govt. efficiency with .8 million jobs put up for bid...weakening unions and cutting undeserved pay raises. Wants merit based promotions/raises only.

Orchestrated Republican control of the White House, the House AND the Senate.

Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

GWB signed an executive order enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision (re: union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes)

Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession.

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

Signed 2 income tax cuts ---- 1 of which was the largest Dollar-value tax cut in world history

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains

In process of eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people
Eliminated the Estate Tax (AKA "Death Tax") that was taking small farms and businesses from families

Signed into law the No Child Left Behind legislation delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations)

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Signed trade promotion authority

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

Passed Medicare Reform (authorized $39.5 Billion per year for preventive medicine such as drugs and doctor visits as well as included a ten year Privatization option)

Urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims

Submitted comprehensive Energy Plan--awaits Congressional action (works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.)

Endorses and promotes The Responsibility Era ("In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself. " -----this quote was too good to leave out)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Initiated review of all federal agencies with a goal to eliminate federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of federal gov while increasing private sector jobs.

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become The League of Nations ( in other words, completely irrelevant)

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

President Bush opened up an additional part of Alaska for domestic oil drilling. In 2004, the National Petroleum Reserve, an area west of the existing Prudhoe Bay field, was approved for new energy exploration and production.
Increased U.S. Oil Drilling Permits 70% Above Clinton-era
Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary clean-up of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

As part of the national forests clean-up, the President restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges) and removed the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
New Forest Rules Gives States Power Over Federal Forests Inside Their Borders
Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
President Bush signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal Aliens
S. 1685, the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, was signed by President Bush on December 3, 2003.
It extends for five years the workplace employment eligibility authorization pilot programs created in 1996. It expands the pilot programs from the original five states to all 50 states.

U.S. Forces In Baghdad

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