[Zack Nguyen]

Ah, but you see, Leahy is fulfilling his role as a leader within the Democratic Party. The rank and file love his foolish rantings and futile polemics. Leahy probably thinks that if he can just raise his profile enough by becoming the Great Enemy of Bush, he can cruise to the Democratic nomination in 2004 or 2008. Of course that is now impossible - he is completely unelectable. But he doesn't realize that.

I think Newt's problem was his inability to discipline himself with regards to communication. He called himself a "revolutionary" which does not conjure up the sort of images that Americans like to associate with their leaders. The people would have let him accomplish a lot more if he had just sounded reasonable, calm, and humble to the public.

In the end, his problem was not that he did too much but that he did too little. He compromised with Clinton during the budget shutdown of 1995-1996, signed a horrible budget in 1998, and refused to discuss Clinton's crimes or impeachment during the 1998 campaign, which has to rank as one of the most stunning political miscalculations of recent history. Republicans lost 5 seats in an off-year election (!), and Gingrich resigned before he could be unseated.

That's my opinion. God bless.

[kayak]

I think Newt was the victim of a well-executed hatchet job by the media. They didn't let the public see who he really was ..... only the fictional character that they created. However, the personal "problem" was a real stumbling block for me ..... the hypocrisy was just too much for me to stomach. IMO, he's a brilliant political thinker but he lost his credibility when he acted like an alley cat. No wonder he didn't say much about x42!

As for Leahy ..... well, I don't want to get banned so I'll just say that my opinion of him is X-rated.