<...everything for the next two years will be the Republicans' fault.

Interestingly, this is pretty much the take in Washington Democratic circles, too. Heard Stefanopolis (sp?) say exactly that this morning. If the economy takes off and Saddam folds up like a garage-sale card table, then what?

As for the Democrats: if this doesn't shake the leadership to its senses, it will go down the tubes.

This election was not so much a mandate for Republicans as a repudiation for Democrats. The Clinton tours, the constant harping on the 2000 election, the Social Security scares, all the usual pantloads, accomplished NOTHING in Florida*. The Jeb Bush election there wasn't even close. Mondale lost in Minnesota, the only state he carried in 1984's presidential election. Tim Johnson, Democratic Senator from South Dakota is holding a lead of about 500 votes. God knows what would have happened there if Daschle had been up for reelection, and you can bet he knows it.

McCauliffe, and with any luck the Clinton clique, are political dead men walking.

The Democratic Party needs a major change, starting with throwing the Marxists out the door and starting to look back a few years for examples of Democrats who really did care about the "working man" and believed solidly in middle-class values.

At its philosophical root, the current Democratic Party is socialist, and this has to change eventually. The Republicans have pretty much isolated their extremists, or Patrick Buchanan would have been our candidate and not Bush. The Democrats can never make a mistake like Clinton again, although to be fair, he pretty effectively disguised himself as a "new Democrat." Remember "the era of big government is over?"

A free piece of advice to the DNC (after throwing McCauliffe out the third story window): Next candidate you pick should be someone who actually had a real 9 to 5 job during the '60s. Look around...there's got to be somebody.

A free piece of advice to the Republicans: let's remember what our philosophical roots are, or are supposed to be. The individualism this country was founded on. I have no desire to trade Democratic statists for Republican ones.

* NBC’s Tim Russert: Now, you said in The New York Times last week, "Jeb Bush is gone." You want to take those words back?



McAuliffe: Of course not. I’ve very excited about what’s going on in Florida.

Russert: He’s going to lose guaranteed?

McAuliffe: Yep. That is why the president was down there yesterday for his 13th visit. People in Florida are energized. They’ve already started the early voting. And if you look at Broward and Dade counties, there are lines already, huge lines, people--record vote coming out in Florida... we are going to win Florida which is going to set us up, Tim, very nicely for 2004.

- (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” November 3, 2002)