© 2003 by Doug Patton

Are you sick and tired of hearing Ted Kennedy fill the airwaves with his vile lies about our country’s foreign policy?

Are you frustrated by the unchallenged accusations of the ten small-minded Democrat presidential wannabes, crisscrossing Iowa and New Hampshire, running off at the mouth about what a “miserable failure” the war in Iraq has been?

Do you feel bewildered as you watch your president’s approval rating plummet as these people accuse him of having destroyed more American jobs than any chief executive since Herbert Hoover?

Do you yearn for a response from someone other than Rush Limbaugh and Tom Delay?

Well, you are not alone. Many of us have become increasingly bewildered at the lack of response from the White House, the Republican National Committee and the GOP leaders in Congress.

Bulbous, corrupt, old Teddy Kennedy, who long ago philandered and perjured away his right to be taken seriously, last week accused George W. Bush of deliberately lying to the American people, the Congress and the world about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

“It was all made up down in Texas!” Kennedy shrieked hysterically. His performance was reminiscent of his diatribe on the Senate floor sixteen years ago against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

The White House response? Mr. Bush was quoted as saying that the senior senator from Massachusetts was being “uncivil.” Take that, Teddy! That should put you in your place.

In Iowa, the wannabes can be observed parading across the state, spreading their anti-Bush propaganda with abandon, scratching and clawing for position in the first-in-the-nation caucuses to be held there in January. Sen. Tom Harkin and Gov. Tom Vilsack, two of the most partisan Democrats in America, welcomed them all recently for a steak fry, featuring another paragon of virtue, Bill Clinton, as their revered main speaker. Clinton did not disappoint, smiling and spreading the same kind of bilge he had used so effectively in 1992 against the first Bush presidency.

In 1994, the GOP took control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. That campaign, conceived in the mind of Newt Gingrich and executed brilliantly through the use of the “Contract with America,” proved that while politics may be local, it is possible to nationalize a congressional election by putting forth an agenda that makes sense to the American people, and then defending that agenda with everything in your political arsenal.

But Democrats, who had run the show in Washington for as long as anyone but Strom Thurmond could remember, never accepted the idea that the American people really wanted them out of power. The 2000 presidential election debacle only confirmed this notion in their minds.

Unfortunately, Republicans also seem to have bought into that idea, as evidenced by the president’s feeble attempts to court favor with Democrats like Kennedy by caving in to their extreme positions on such issues as education, Medicare and the environment. Teddy’s tirade is the thanks he gets for trying to get along.

So where are the Republicans? As the wannabes traipse across Iowa and New Hampshire spreading fear among the voters, pounding Bush’s poll numbers into the ground, where is the GOP response? Where are the veterans of the House and the Senate? Where is Speaker Dennis Hastert? Where are John McCain, Orin Hatch, Chuck Hagel and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist? Where is gentle old Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s revered senior senator?

Why are these leaders not speaking out? Why are they not taking turns traveling across Iowa and New Hampshire, making the news, refuting every lie told by Teddy and the wannabes? I don’t know. They just don’t seem to have the stomach for it.

__________________________________________________________________

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor at the federal, state and local levels. His weekly columns can be read in newspapers across the country, and on www.GOPUSA.com, where he serves as the Nebraska Editor. He also writes for Talon News Service (www.TalonNews.com).

Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonamp.com __________________________________________________________________

E-Mail This Page

Printer Version