[Texasforever]

I can't figure Zell Miller out. He would fit very well in the GOP. I have no answer other than he looks at his voters and sees political suicide in going republican. There are still a lot more yellow dog democrats that are quite conservative in the south than you may imagine they just cannot break old ties to the dems. My dad was like that. He was as “right wing” as any republican on earth and he could NEVER bring himself to vote for anyone but a democrat.

[ArneFufkin]

My theory is this ... Democrats have been held in line by their reliance on "soft money". The Unions, Teachers, Trial Lawyers, Wall Street barons, multi-national PACs, Ag PACs ... gave their millions to the DNC. The DNC then parcels it out to the "good boys". The GOP Senators representing liberal constituencies ... New England, Oregon etc ... move left on issues that their constituency leans liberal on. The Democrats representing the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin ... NEVER move right on social or economic issues that reflect the priorites of their socially conservative constituencies. Never.

Those who vote Democrat don't contribute any personal money to candidates. Their local media don't explore votes from their Democrat reps that disserve their interests. Never happenes, I see that ALL the time with MN media and Paul Wellstone. The Dem entitlement groups don't pay, their Unions or organized identity groups do. They rent buses to pick all the confused and dependent up on election day and haul them to the polls. Nobody in North Dakota is funding Byron Dorgan's Senate campaigns ... it's Terry McAulliffe. He needs to please Terry McAullife -not some Catholic plumber in Grand Forks who didn't hear about the Late Term Abortion vote from his news media. The media keeps the riff-raff in the dark, and Byron votes the way Terry and Tommy and Harry tells him to. As do Breaux, Bingaman, Cleland, Harkin, Baucus, Wellstone, Conrad, Stebanow, Carnahan, Landrieu, Wyden, Graham etc. They represent conservative people. They win because they have the coffers of the special interests in DC, and the Advertising of the socialist press, scaring off challengers and buying elections. CFR is a good thing for Pubbies and Conservatives, notwithstanding the Constitutionality. That's why it was so reviled here, it was a strategic win for Republicans that might actually move the ball. How can you bitch incessantly about that?