Fred Barnes: Winners! (And Losers)--2002 Edition

Oh I think the desire for old hands is because all of the current neuvo Liberals are shackled with the impression of corruption and deceit.

1. Remember how Clinton came into office. The whole mantra was that it was the Republicans who were corrupt and sellouts to big business.

Clinton-Gore were seen as moderate guys with fresh ideas and spunk. The impression was that Clinton wasnt part of the Beltway game.

They would bring change.

It wasnt so much liberals defeating conservatives as it was moderates falling for the deception....Bush Sr. didnt help by looking like a cakeboy.

2. So Clinton gets into office and after eight years...the reality everyone comes to [especially the liberals] is that Clinton was a total sleaze who lied straight to their face.

3. Now Gore loses the election and the impression isnt that GW stole the election....not among moderates. The impression is that the Democrats are so addicted to power that they will do anything to have it.

In general, people tend to distance themselves from people who are percieved as idolatrous[sp?], addicted or corrupt.

That is the first impression...

Then you have September 11th and to make the story short...

4. You have the second deeper personal impression that Democrats are again so addicted to power that they will actually put the safety of the nation in jeopardy.

You add all that up and it is easy to see why people would be looking for retreads. Anyone that doesnt have the scent of Clintonization.

Then Mondale shows up in Minnesota yucking it up with Clinton at a memorial service....what happened?

Clinton campaigns for different democrats....what happened?

They just dont get it...

Bill Clinton is their problem. He used to be all of ours...but now...he belongs totally to them.

If he continues to stay in the limelight...we will have 9/11 ammo and sleaze ammo for years to come. I pray the bitter extremists within the Democratic party sieze control and McAuliffe stays as the head of the DNC.

Another name to add to your losers' list is Martin Sheen. I got several canned messages from him on my answering machine, promoting California prop 52. Of course, he represented this poisonous measure as a safeguard against voter fraud but it was just the opposite. It would have allowed illegals with phony IDs to register to vote on election day right there at the polling place and then cast votes. I guess the "motor voter" scam isn't enough for the dems. They're forever looking for new ways to corrupt the electoral process.

LINCOLN CHAFEE - who floated the treasonous trial balloon of following Jumpin' Jim's treacherous ways. That trial balloon has blown up like the Hindenburg now that a Republican cushion exist in the Senate and a jump would do no more than put him in the minority.

In a just world, he'd have the second smallest office on the Hill, and an assignment only to the Decoration And Refreshment committee...

That's [Frist not interested in Majority Leader] too bad because Trent Lott is an embarrassment. And I contend that he was at least partially responsible for the GOP losing the majority last time.

A very big part. Reading of his [Lott's] sellout to the D's on the impeachment trial shows his total worthlessness. He agreed to rules guaranteed to show the Republicans as bitter and petty instead of honestly discharging their duty. From that all Republicans looked petty, and the D's gained from what should have been a fatal decision to cling to Clinton. If the 'truth' (as shown in a fair trial setting) would have come out, Clinton wouldn't have been removed from office, but the D's would have been shown as partisan and hypocritical. As it was, he couldn't even convince all of his own party to support the truth - leading to such staunch partisans as Byrd wanting to vote, "guilty, but unproven."

Lott was so afraid to lose power, that he squandered it away.

Very important history making event last night folks. The SOUTH went almost solid Republican. The Democratic party has had a firm grasp on us since forever! Last showed two trends in the South that started appearing with Bushes' election - 1. We ain't gonna take it no mo! and 2. If you ever wanted an example of black flight from the Democratic Party - you have it now. Especially in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina!

Terry MaCauliffe's main job is to hold the door open for Hillary Clinton's presidential run. He's there to block all the other potential candidates so St. Hillary can position herself advantageously amoung their normally crowded primary field.

Beyond that, I think he may go down for the Global Crossing bankruptcy. The wheels are still grinding on that investigation. He's a dead man walking in more ways than one!

The only salvation at this point for the Democrats is to dump the entire anal left and radically place new faces at its center.

That may happen eventually. But it will take some commanding political personality to do it, and I don't seem anyone like that on the national Democratic horizon. I think they are going to have to go through another cycle before that happens. Right now it seems to be the activist leaders from the "base" ganging up on the more cautious party establishment, not new leaders stepping up - if they go from Gebhart to Pelosi we'll have more perfect symbolism.

My bet is that they are going to tack hard to the left for the next two years, and then, barring major GOP self-destruction, celebrate the anniversary of their '84 drubbing by the Gipper by losing like Mondale in 2004.

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