Some over-paid young punk in the Bush war room, if not Karl Rove himself, coined the notorious adjective "flip-flopper" for John Kerry in the 2004 elections. It was a touchdown in the give-and-take game of football between opposing political strategists. Republicans liked it so much they did the equivalent of a five-hour touchdown celebration. Eventually John Kerry's team went home, dejected and beat.
All summer long conservative talk show hosts would ask callers rhetorically, "You mean the Iraq spending bill John Kerry voted for before he voted against it?" They laughed it up all the way to the bank.
Those were dark days for democrats. A CNN poll over the weekend showed that only 34 percent of Americans favor the war in Iraq, and 64 percent are opposed. The LA Times is reporting that--in an obvious reaction to public sentiment--representatives Curt Weldon, from Pennsylvania, and Christopher Shays, from Connecticut, and senatorial candidates Thomas H. Kean Jr., of New Jersey, and Senator George Allen of Virginia (among others) are flip-flopping.
As democrats, we might forgive republicans for changing their minds on Iraq. We might commiserate with them because we know firsthand how changing your opinion can have political consequences. We might welcome them back to reality instead of trumpeting to the world what a bunch of spineless, vapid flip-floppers they are, but there's just that inescapable need for revenge.
There's just that bitter memory of the republican hit-men who gleefully destroyed the reputation of Senator Max Cleland like a bunch of Taliban jihadists dancing around the burning effigy of their enemy. There's just the bitter memory of that fat lot of privileged draft-dodgers blaming John Kerry for his service in Vietnam. It makes you understand what the Russians felt like after watching Germany's 6th Army invade their country, kill millions of their countryman and then starve tens of thousands of Russian prisoners they captured on the way.
You just don't turn around and give those kinds of savages a free pass back to safety. They had it good when times were good. Real good. They plundered, they corrupted the government, and they forked over our tax money to their buddies at Halliburton and Big Oil. They thought they'd never be held accountable to anyone but themselves. Not so anymore.
Suddenly prominent republicans are expressing doubts about Iraq, and saying that Bush isn't doing such a great job over there. I'm making a prediction. Every republican who even begins to change course on Iraq will loose this election. They will pay for flip-flopping in the last few weeks before Election Day. They can run, but they can't hide from the record. Their own words will cement their political doom. The republicans are back peddling, sidestepping and tripping over each other in frantic haste to save their own political lives, but nobody's buying it.
This is the "say and do anything" party. These people will say-and-do-anything to get elected, they will say-and-do-anything to protect people like Mark Foley, they will say-and-do-anything to give Big Oil our money, and they will say-and-do-anything to blame the democrats for their own abysmal behavior.
All summer long conservative talk show hosts would ask callers rhetorically, "You mean the Iraq spending bill John Kerry voted for before he voted against it?" They laughed it up all the way to the bank.
Those were dark days for democrats. A CNN poll over the weekend showed that only 34 percent of Americans favor the war in Iraq, and 64 percent are opposed. The LA Times is reporting that--in an obvious reaction to public sentiment--representatives Curt Weldon, from Pennsylvania, and Christopher Shays, from Connecticut, and senatorial candidates Thomas H. Kean Jr., of New Jersey, and Senator George Allen of Virginia (among others) are flip-flopping.
As democrats, we might forgive republicans for changing their minds on Iraq. We might commiserate with them because we know firsthand how changing your opinion can have political consequences. We might welcome them back to reality instead of trumpeting to the world what a bunch of spineless, vapid flip-floppers they are, but there's just that inescapable need for revenge.
You just don't turn around and give those kinds of savages a free pass back to safety. They had it good when times were good. Real good. They plundered, they corrupted the government, and they forked over our tax money to their buddies at Halliburton and Big Oil. They thought they'd never be held accountable to anyone but themselves. Not so anymore.
Suddenly prominent republicans are expressing doubts about Iraq, and saying that Bush isn't doing such a great job over there. I'm making a prediction. Every republican who even begins to change course on Iraq will loose this election. They will pay for flip-flopping in the last few weeks before Election Day. They can run, but they can't hide from the record. Their own words will cement their political doom. The republicans are back peddling, sidestepping and tripping over each other in frantic haste to save their own political lives, but nobody's buying it.
This is the "say and do anything" party. These people will say-and-do-anything to get elected, they will say-and-do-anything to protect people like Mark Foley, they will say-and-do-anything to give Big Oil our money, and they will say-and-do-anything to blame the democrats for their own abysmal behavior.
