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Good start for Democrats
Miami Herald ^ | 09/23/3005 | Cal Thomas

Posted on 09/23/2005 9:20:31 PM PDT by RightDemocrat

Fifteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives have produced a document and a strategy that they hope will convince substantial numbers of voters who don't trust them on national security to begin trusting them again.

Led by Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Ensuring America's Strength and Security: A Democratic National Security Strategy for the 21st Century is an attempt by Democrats to reclaim this issue from Republicans and return the Democratic Party to majority status.

Hoyer, a liberal who voted for the Patriot Act, tells me that during Bill Clinton's presidency, ''We didn't do enough to fight terrorism.'' But he praises Clinton for deposing former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from his genocidal power without many American casualties. (That was because Clinton mostly employed high-flying bombers instead of ground troops.) He also calls the United Nations ``feckless.''

Hoyer adds, ''We got it.'' What did he get? ``If we don't convince people we are capable of defending the country, we'll never get to other issues.''

A Republican might conclude this is merely a repositioning of the party so it can get back to its big-government, big-spending ways, and maybe it is. But Democrats have not always been the party of peace-at-any-price and never seeing a war or an idea for which they would fight. Vietnam and President Lyndon Johnson changed the party's direction on foreign policy, radically jerking it leftward.

The late Sen. Henry ''Scoop'' Jackson of Washington was a leading congressional Democrat known for putting his country's best interests ahead of partisan politics. While much of the rest of his party embraced liberalism during and after the Vietnam War and favored negotiation instead of confrontation with the Soviet Union, Jackson clung to the belief that communism is inherently evil and should be opposed and ultimately defeated by American power.

(Excerpt) Read more at miami.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 109th; calthomas; democraticparty; foreignpolicy; lostdems; terrorism
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Conservative columnist Cal Thomas seems to think that the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic Party may be coming back to life. It seems difficult to imagine given the strong influence of the Moveonner left among Democrats, but stranger things have happened. If Democrats can move to the mainstream on issues like national security and point out the failure of the Republican leadership on border control, we might see some interesting new political alignments. Thomas mentions the potential of the illegal immigration issue in his column. I agree and if neither party makes a real attempt to deal with this matter, there is a good chance that a strong third party movement will emerge in 2008.
1 posted on 09/23/2005 9:20:32 PM PDT by RightDemocrat
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To: RightDemocrat

Don't lose any sleep waiting for that to happen.


2 posted on 09/23/2005 9:23:35 PM PDT by oldbill
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To: oldbill
Yeah. ....and I'm an astronaut.

Talk is cheap. Let's see how the act.

3 posted on 09/23/2005 9:26:39 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean is a Rove plant, Rove is a NeoCon plant, NeoCons are Trilateralist plants....)
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To: RightDemocrat

Just another "bait and switch".


4 posted on 09/23/2005 9:28:34 PM PDT by evad ( PC KILLS--NOLA is just the latest example)
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To: RightDemocrat

If the democrats are making noises about being concerned about border control and national security then they are lying to get votes. They will not carry this stuff out if elected. Mark my words.


5 posted on 09/23/2005 9:28:52 PM PDT by ladyinred (It is all my fault okay?)
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To: RightDemocrat

The "Scoop Jackson" wing of the party died a long time ago.

Zell Miller is retired and I don't believe in zombies.


6 posted on 09/23/2005 9:31:47 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
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To: RightDemocrat

Cal Thomas has spent far too much time on that stupid Fox News Watch show. He needs to get away from the libs Jane Hall and Neil Gabler, and also the pretend conservative Pinkerton.


7 posted on 09/23/2005 9:34:26 PM PDT by sydbas
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To: RightDemocrat

They won't be able to moderate unless the party splits off it's crypto-commie hippies from the party. Doesn't seem there are enough Zell Miller types to force such a change.


8 posted on 09/23/2005 9:36:21 PM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances – and it advances relentlessly – freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: keithtoo
True. In 1968 and 1972, the radical leftists purged the Democrats of anything resembling Patriotism. 1968 was the Chicago riot convention; in 1972 they were able to get McGovern in as a candidate. Since that time, the radical leftists have controlled the party. The only way they won elections was by keeping the people who were still voting for FDR. That generation is dying off.

The people who are controlling the Rat party now will cut off anyone at the knees if they don't adhere to the government control, higher taxes, abortion on demand, enforcement of sexual deviancy as a right, take the guns, silence the church party line.

They lose ground each election, but they also become a more pure breed.

9 posted on 09/23/2005 9:38:28 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: RightDemocrat

How is this alleged Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic atrocity going to compete with the moonbats' Soros money?


10 posted on 09/23/2005 9:38:33 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Driving an SUV is objectively pro-terrorist)
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To: RightDemocrat

I think you need to go to sleep, your brain is tired.


11 posted on 09/23/2005 9:41:00 PM PDT by jveritas (The Axis of Defeatism: Left wing liberals, Buchananites, and third party voters.)
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To: ladyinred
If the democrats are making noises about being concerned about border control and national security then they are lying to get votes. They will not carry this stuff out if elected. Mark my words.

I'm glad the Republican politicians followed through on their promises to close the border, despite only controlling the House, Senate, and Presidency.

Face it, politicians won't care about closing the border until we make them care. That means holding them accountable for their promises.

12 posted on 09/23/2005 9:42:29 PM PDT by fooblier (If you say, "You fool", you will be liable to the hell of fire - Matthew 5:22)
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To: RightDemocrat

---Conservative columnist Cal Thomas seems to think that the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic Party may be coming back to life. ---

Maybe in another 20-30 years the Dims will be trustworthy again. I've made a note to myself to take another look at them then.


13 posted on 09/23/2005 9:44:15 PM PDT by claudiustg (Vote for one Democrat, vote for them all...)
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To: RightDemocrat
Thirty years ago, I might've taken Cong. Hoyer seriously.

Not any more.

14 posted on 09/23/2005 9:44:27 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: thoughtomator
Cal Thomas is too stupid to answer this most important question. I had it with all these knee jerk reactionary so called conservative pundits. They are nothing but very annoying idiots who have been wrong in all their doom and gloom predictions about President Bush and the Republican Party.
15 posted on 09/23/2005 9:45:04 PM PDT by jveritas (The Axis of Defeatism: Left wing liberals, Buchananites, and third party voters.)
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To: RightDemocrat



Is this article the reason Cal's show has been canceled on Fox? :-}


16 posted on 09/23/2005 9:46:13 PM PDT by msnimje (Hurricane KATRINA - An Example of Nature's Enforcement of Eminent Domain)
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To: RightDemocrat
during Bill Clinton's presidency, ''We didn't do enough to fight terrorism.''

Well, hello.

Lots of blood on BJ's hands.

17 posted on 09/23/2005 9:46:49 PM PDT by quantim (Detroit is the New Orleans of the North as an example of a failed welfare state.)
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To: All

Follow the money, folks.

The reason that the farther left elements within the Democratic party have managed to leverage it leftward is a matter of funding and the structure of fundraising within the party itself. The Democratic party has never been as efficient in raising hard money (donations less than $2,000) as the GOP has been. Before the BCRA (aka McCain-Feingold), the Democrats relied more heavily on soft money than the GOP did, too. That is not signifncant thanks to the 527 loophole in terms of effective dollars and cents, but it makes a world of difference with regard to who pulls the strings and how campaigning is done.

Until significant changes are made to the Democratic Party's fundraising structure, I don't see this change happening. Under the current scenario, you would need to have someone with even more money than the Peter Lewises and George Soroses of the world to essentially outbuy influence and moderate the party.


18 posted on 09/23/2005 9:48:38 PM PDT by AZ_Cowboy ("Be ever vigilant, for you know not when the master is coming")
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To: oldbill
I agree, oldbill.

Show me a Scoop Jackson in the current cabal of pansy-waisted, knee-jerk Liberals that constitute the core of the Democrat Party -- and I will show you an easy way to walk to the moon.

Or, put another way: "Sir, I knew scoop Jackson -- and Joe Biden is no Scoop Jackson." *S*

Further, the insidious pressures of the Clinton "One World" Globalists will resist any pressures to bring National Security Issues to the fore in any internal party policy debate.

Accordingly, I suspect Cal has gotten into his grandma's stash of reefer leaves before he took pen in hand on this caper. (Or his tailor forgot to provide him one of his great shirts --with a bright yellow tie to match).

Happy Weekend, all.
19 posted on 09/23/2005 10:04:10 PM PDT by dk/coro
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To: quantim
"Lots of blood on BJ's hands."

On the beast's claws too!

20 posted on 09/23/2005 10:06:19 PM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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