Democrat Suicide Watch
Fund, John H.
"Democrat Suicide Watch" BY JOHN H. FUND You knew the Democratic Party was turning left after its drubbing in the 2002 election when House Democrats overwhelmingly selected San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi as...
...After she defended her 1991 statement that President George H. W. Bush was "acting illegally" in prosecuting the Gulf War, Ms...
...George W. Bush couldn't ask for more electorally tone-deaf opponents...
...Carville and Greenberg conclude that voters "are prepared to respond to a new Democratic boldness...
...The Other Ones" is a good description of a Democratic Party that has now lost five straight House elections, largely on its inability to connect with the concerns of ordinary Americans...
...They were all well educated, many in Western countries...
...They believe that Democrats will find a receptive audience if they embrace canceling a portion of the Bush tax cuts, pro-pose pouring billions of dollars into "alternative" energy sources such as solar power, and oppose private accounts that would give younger workers more control over their social security payroll taxes...
...Gore supports a European-style socialized medicine program that even Hillary Rodham Clinton did not dare propose during the heyday of Clintonian liberalism...
...If I we don't do something new—in a better and bolder way—the Democratic Party could follow that other inflexible party of (interest) groups, the Whigs, into the dust-bin of history," he warned in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal...
...Ms...
...Pelosi's fifteen-year congressional voting record is repletewith opposition to military spending and tax cuts, along with sup-port for debt forgiveness for poor countries...
...Russert...
...SUICIDE WATCH BY JOHN H. FUND You knew the Democratic Party was turning left after its drubbing in the 2002 election when House Democrats overwhelmingly selected San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi as their new minority leader...
...Pelosi has apparently for-gotten that almost all of the September 11 hijackers—not to mention Osama bin Laden—were the offspring of privileged Middle Eastern families...
...They seem to be cheerfully running—not walking—to the edge of another electoral cliff...
...Just days after their disaster at the polls, former vice president Al Gore told a New York City audience that he supports a "single-payer national health insurance program...
...In other words, Mr...
...Once again, this is still the Democrats' moment," they conclude...
...SARKES TARZIAN INC Sarkes Tarzian Television Sarkes Tarzian Radio Broadcasters Making a Difference NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 • THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 15...
...But the Democratic Party is clearly following Ms...
...Pelosi couldn't help but lapse into latte liberal-speak when discussing the war on terrorism...
...14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 ton won on in 1992 and then somewhat returned to after his party lost control of Congress in 1994...
...Carville and Greenberg look at there results and suggest that Democrats offer even more of the same...
...Miller called on Democrats to emulate John F. Kennedy and embrace real tax cuts, for both individuals and businesses, to counter the growing threat of deflation...
...It was the belief that Ms...
...rooting it out, but we also have to be smart in how we address the root causes of terrorism...
...Al From, founder of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, worries that the party is veering away from the centrist message that ClinMs...
...Party leaders, he said, are "going to have to figure out how to get people from the center of the country and center of the party to be part of what they are doing...
...Senator Miller won't get very far with the Pelosi Democrats...
...It's no wonder that Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia—the man who nominated Bill Clinton for president at the 1992 Democratic convention, when he still believed the Arkansas governor was a centrist has been so scathing since November 5 in criticizing his "stagnant" party...
...Pelosi celebrated her victory by attending a Washington concert by The Other Ones, a band made up of the remaining former members of the hippie cult favorite, The Grateful Dead...
...Bush in much of the city...
...Pelosi laid out her bleeding-heart credentials on dealing with terror-ism...
...We have not been able to win with the old message of prescription drugs and never touching social security," he told the Washington Post...
...Indeed, a post-election survey by Democratic strategists James Carville and Stan Greenberg concluded that voters cited prescription drug benefits and protecting social security as the fourth and fifth most important reasons to vote Republican...
...When presented with her first postelection chance to speak to a national audience, on Tim Russert's "Meet the Press," Ms...
...Despite such evidence, Messrs...
...Ralph Nader, who won 8 percent, out-polled Mr...
...There is opportunity for us to reduce the fury of despair in the world, so that people have some hope, some opportunity," she told Mr...
...When they have no options, they resort to this (terrorism) . . . we have to be firm in John H. Fund is a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal...
...Old habits die hard...
...In the 2000 presidential election, it gave George W. Bush only 15 percent of the vote...
...Having seen their fear tactics and opposition to the Bush agenda fail dramatically at the polls, Democrats like Messrs...
...However, it is certainly not politically smart in the aftermath of the most devastating attack ever made on the American homeland...
...Martin Frost of Texas, a former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to briefly challenge her for the leadership post...
...But their idea of boldness is moving to the left, not breaking outdated ties to liberal special interest groups...
...Concern about the root causes of terrorism is a defensible albeit odd position...
...Pelosi, a charming and gracious person, has unfortunately been marinated in the liberal thinking of her thoroughly unrepresentative San Francisco district...
...Pelosi, a charming and gracious person, has unfortunately been marinated in the liberal thinking of her thoroughly unrepresentative San Francisco district...
...Pelosi would find it impossible to move to the center as the leader of the House Democrats that prompted Rep...
...Pelosi instead and lurching to the left...
Vol. 35 • November 2002 • No. 6
