To Dems: So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

First, a rant. I've just finished watching a heartwarming, hand-wringing performance from former everyman-staffer David Gergen on CNN. He seemed absolutely bumfuzzled, "mystified" to be more precise, that President Bush could play politics on this Rumsfeld announcement. Gergen must be forgetting the years he worked as an adviser for Bill Clinton. And now they're interviewing Andrew Sullivan. And my wife thinks he just called Anderson Cooper handsome.

This is just one more reason that these CNN guys kill me. Why do I watch? Well, Greta is on FOX at the moment, that's why. The only pundit I can stomach at CNN is James Carville. Despite his ravings, at least he's a known quantity. Cooper has this unassuming, politically naive act where everything seems to take him by surprise. Paul Begala is like the kid who would talk smack to the school bully only to come hide behind you when the going got rough. Jeff Greenfield just likes to hear and see himself talk, and Lynne Cheney smacked Wolf Blitzer all around the Situation Room a couple of weeks back. With a couple of exceptions, the guys of CNN are, well, kinda beta. But that's neither here nor there.

With all the Gergen-esque faux concern for the Republicans going on at CNN, I must say that I've never seen so many Democrats willing to lend helpful advice to Republicans regarding what they should do in the future. Yeah, the Republicans screwed this one up. But Democrats would do well to remember that that is the only way they won this election. This was little more than a referendum on the current Republican leadership and Iraq, not on the conservative movement in general--as some Dems would lead us to believe. All they'll have to do in January is look around at those new moderate to conservative faces in the House to see that.

The good thing for Republicans is that it is the Democrats' turn to handle the Iraq hot potato. They've been bombastic about Bush's failure in this department and about their desire to just get a chance to do something about it. Well Dems, it's yours. After all, it is all about the war isn't it, stupid? President Bush already has a 38% approval rating; what does he really have to lose? His historical legacy? This isn't Bill Clinton. His job? Dems will probably use impeachment as leverage anyway. Well, here's to getting what you wanted. So long, and thanks for all the fish.