I'm (almost sort of) glad that Shrub was sworn in a 2nd time

[BR_Parkway]

Had Kerry taken his rightful place, this infestation of RWer's would have burrowed down, licked their wounds and built up their party again.

By having the RePugs in charge of everything - and watching them all self destruct - they have finally shown the large majority of Americans just how corrupt they are, how big of hypocrites they are and how flawed their policies are. Their brand of selfish capitalism shouldn't rise from this defeat again.

Let them slink into their holes and try to build consensus among their remaining 15-20% true faithful. They deserve each other.

[Arkana]

1. Almost true....I look back on it, and I don't think Bush would have gotten

his TRUE lot in the history books if he had escaped after one term.

[Metta]

2. Yes, it is a pyhrric victory.

There's good and bad in everything.

[electropop]

3. It's going to be decades before they slink out of their holes again.

And then we'll play "Whack-a-Mole."

[henslee]

9. Like Vader in his little space ship at the end of Star Wwars I, spinning

away into the void, hit but not done.

[Dervill Crow]

12. What a lovely visual. eom

[iconoclastNYC]

4. Yes and I think we're going to have another recession in Bush's 2nd.

Losing '04 might turn out to be quite fortuitous.

[begin_within]

5. It forces Bush to deal with all the messes he created in his first term

[stubtoe]

6. Gave enough time for all the chickens to come home to roost.

Wishing them 40 years in the wilderness for their crimes.

[NNadir]

7. My hope was not that I could be proven right, but that the country could

be saved.

Every additional day the Repukes rule our government, the disaster becomes more and more irretrievable.

This "destroy the country to destroy the Republicans" was one of the more bald faced distortions of the lying and fraudulent Repuke operative, Ralph Nader. It is cruel; it is ethically wrong.

I didn't want my country destroyed for the purpose of making a point.

[SnowGoose]

15. Thank you!

Something that is bad for America is *not* good for the Democratic party, which after all, is made up of.... Americans.

[BR_Parkway]

18. Nor my hope either. And my thoughts now are that the excess of

things destroying our country - corporate purchase of ALL congresscritters, not just R's - selfish and arrogant overconsumption with the whole "I got mine, screw everyone else" attitude will be shown for what they are - and they are beyond any political party lines. I'm looking at this as a wake up call for all regular Americans to see where the politicians have taken us.

Had the Dems taken us down this path (or even somewhere along those lines) then the Repug spin machine would have further made it look like all these problems are simply a partisan political thing. With the RePugs in charge (and the Dems fairly ineffective at communicating in a way that inspires a strong majority) then the fall out of all this might actually make a difference. I don't want to see America go down the tubes, but some people out there will listen when told the stove is hot - others have to put their own hand into the fire before they believe it will apply to them.

[bostonbabs]

8. I had the same thought ...

How could Kerry have gotten out from under this ...this is the best way. They must be disgraced and shown to the world for what they are and it's not pretty...its an all time low in American history....we will be judged by how we handle it as much as the crime itself. I do believe.

[Skelington]

16. If Kerry had ANY questions about his ability to lead,

this country then why the F*** was he running????????? "This is the best way" ??? Do you honestly think that the rape of the US is justified as long as the F*****g republicans learn a lesson ???

Question: Which Democrat do you think IS capable of steering this country back on track?? I doubt very much that bush will leave the country in any better shape after he is gone than it is right F*****g now.

"How could Kerry have gotten out from under this....this is the best way." UNFUCKING believeable ! Who do you believe in ??? Is that what all the soldiers and hurricane survivors need to be told ? "It's for the best this way"

[blm]

10. Katrina forced more eyes open. The ears followed.

And all their transgressions became too difficult at that point for the media to continue the coverup.

[evolved Anarchopunk]

11. a lot of people are saying that. As much as I hate giving up

another 4 years of my life to immobile and incontrovertibly corrupt government that doesn't give 2 shits about me, and vice-versa, if i had known b4 or immediately following the most recent election that these four years would possibly 'bankrupt' the GOP forever i wouldn't have felt half as bad.

Republicans in every state are running w/out putting the word "Repug" on their signs now? Embarrassed are we? I've noticed it in NC and VA and i travel both routinely.

I'm as happy as you, in that kerry didn't get stuck w/ this mess. But all the same, Bush was never really elected and we need to work on Ballot Reform... seriously now. And nobody was happier than Bush that he didn't have to literally be "sworn in" again. Im not sure he could have walked down Penn. Ave. a 2nd time.....

[mazzarro]

13. Democrats Not Quite Ready To Correct The Rethuglican Wrongs

IMHO, Kerry in WH would have enabled the DLC to claim undue credit for winning the election and also would have aided in the burying of the cronyism, corruption and incompetence of this administration and the rethuglican party since the democratic party leadership is still not as aggresive as the rank-and-file in cocnfronting the rethugs. Thus it would not have taken the rethugs too long to resurface probably with far more potent force than before. In fact I do not think that so far we have quite succeeded in instilling enough spine into the democratic party to warranty that aggressive efforts will be undertaken to right all the wrongs so far committed by the current clique in power and bury the neocons for a very long time.

[Nite Owl]

14. I want to think this too

but what bothers me is that one would have thought that the elimination of the deficits and prosperity of the Clinton years would have shown that trickle down tax cuts for the rich and corporations did not work and yet look at where we are now. I hope that this isn't another thing that will just roll off their backs and the American people will finally put two and two together and see that the repukes are bad for them in every way, that they are a completely immoral party.

[Lexingtonian]

17. yep

I think people here were calling it all a Pyrrhic victory for them when the Schiavo business was over, in May.

LBJ said he knew at the 1964 election, which he won so overwhelmingly by the numbers, that it was a very frail coalition he had and not much mandate to do things. He said he did things that he thought Kennedy had wanted and made the case for and intended to do. (A few years ago they found notes from late 1963 that showed that JFK had privately reversed his thinking and had just about decided to withdraw the American military presence in Vietnam, but he hadn't told his Cabinet that yet when he died.)

Bush has a similar mandate-to-do-nothing election behind him. His Party's basic coalition and basic political idea and essential political usefulness to The People is in about the same situation as the FDR Democratic Party's during LBJ's term. The Job Is Done, It's Time For You and Your Party To Go.

There's a way of looking at the Bush Presidential terms as the final putting of all the Nixon Republican ideas openly on the table and using them up, i.e. until they demonstrably fail. If you peg these ideas having credibility with 99+% of the American electorate in late 2000, Bush's maximal approval levels strike against a ceiling of rejection of these that drops a little over 1% a month since. (Approval of his Party, agenda, Republicans in Congress, etc. is always very much the same number as his job approval.) ~10 months in, right after '9/11', he peaks in the low nineties or very high eighties. In March 2003, 24-27 months in, he peaks during the Iraq invasion in the mid/low seventies. In November 2004, 48 months since the last election, he scores a bit under 51%. Now, in October 2005 and 58 or 59 months since the 2000 election was decided in his favor, he's at 39% on average-the highest pollings get him to 41% or 42%.

We here focus on the dramatic events that precipitate "that's it, we're giving up on Bush and the Republicans" behavior, but maybe a constant level of bleeding is a better way of predicting where the electorate is. As it is, we have a little over 12 months until the next national elections...and 36 months until the '08 ones. I like the prospects and, well, three more years of Republican agony and decline in return for the three to four they subjected us to is just desserts. Oh, and we win and live, they disintegrate and die.