Republicans Almost Get It Right

I agree with John Hinderaker that the vote on immediate withdrawal from Iraq was a missed opportunity. It's a great idea to make the Democrats put up or shut up on Iraq. They've been doing a lot of talking about immediate withdrawal. Talk is cheap. Let's vote on it. But the Republicans should have used Murtha's actual resolution instead of rewriting it and then calling it the "Murtha Resolution."

Imagine if Tom DeLay offered a resolution that the Democrats rewrote for their own purpose of embarrassing the Republicans, then called it the "DeLay Resolution." Rush Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt would howl.

I give the Republicans a C+. Good idea, flawed execution. (Why is it that even when the Republicans come up with a good idea, they still manage to shoot themselves in the foot?)

Even with the flaw, the vote shows what a tremendous bind the Democrat Party is in. It must please its leftist base. It can't survive without the huge money from the likes of George Soros and moveon.org. At the same time the party can't survive if it alienates the non-leftist voters that make up, what -- 65% of America? 70%? 75%?

I sometimes think that if every voter in America read Democratic Underground for one hour, the Democrat Party would go the way of the Whigs. A lot of people vote Democrat because they think it's their father's Democrat Party. It's not. It is now a New Leftist party. The New Left arose in the '60s and '70s dedicated to a group of ideas: multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism. And yes, part of the mix was anti-americanism. The New Left's two great victories in its salad days were the Vietnam antiwar movement and Watergate; the Democrats are now trying to repeat the successes of their youth with Iraq and Plamegate. (Insert line about history as tragedy repeated by farce.)

The Republicans should come up with more votes designed to reveal the true nature of the Democrats. When a Democrat produces a resolution meant to placate the party's leftist base, the Republicans should rush it to the House floor. Get it out there so every American can see the truth. Make the Democrats vote on it. The Kossacks will scream, "New McCarthyism!" Well, it is like the old McCarthyism if you define McCarthyism as I do: telling the truth about the left.