Democratic and Liberal political analysis and commentary

Under the cloud of threats from the RNC, Senator Larry Craig "reluctantly" resigned from the Senate, effective September 30. He built in the extra time to ensure an orderly transition for his staff, which I'm sure they appreciated. Those young staffers certainly feel betrayed and hurt inside. You can bet on that.

The real story here is the absolute collapse of the republican party. They came back in to power in 1994, with the supposed "Contract with America" (whatever!). Then after the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and Bush's subsequent crowning they promised to "bring integrity back to the White House." (yeah, right!) The only thing they've done better at during all those years is putting fear in the minds of Americans, creating boogey men and monsters that didn't exist, and dividing people further than was ever thought possible.

Even Larry Craig, the poor miserable fool, was sucked into the vortex of the republican spin machine. Last week, he was one of them, furthering the hateful agenda of the radical rightwing nutjobs. Now he is on the outside looking in. Chewed up and spit out like garbage.

Maybe America will wake up and realize the unbelievable amounts of time our government leaders spend playing "morality police of the people." Maybe they will make a new "to do" list that looks like this:

1. Prevent gay people from exercising their constitutional rights
2. Talk about how the next election is about preserving the American way of life
3. Be sure to demonize Hillary Clinton at every possible turn
4. Find a way to stop the war in Iraq
5. Lower taxes for the rich again
6. Support public financing of campaigns to allow quality candidates (who aren't millionaires) to run for office
7. Overturn Roe vs. Wade
8. Support real education reform and make it easier for everyone to attend college
9. Get real about immigration reform and toss out the hateful rhetoric
10. Bitch about those "activist judges"
11. Support univeral health care

I hate to point out the painfully obvious, but things could not be worse for the republicans. But instead of gloating, pointing and laughing, I choose to simply point out that they did it to themselves. All the self-righteous pandering to the lowest common denominator, all the dirty political rangling, all the wasted opportunities to compromise on so many issues.

I can't wait until election day.