Shane Dale

Monday August 27, 2001 |

Many on the left are still fuming over Election 2000 and George W. Bush's "illegitimate" presidency - liberal Hollywood celebrities, to name a few. Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Rosie O'Donnell and other left-wing Tinseltown stars are all wealthy puppets of the Democratic Party, and someone has to be there to pull the strings. That someone is newly elected Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

McAuliffe shamefully heads what was once a proud DNC under its previous chairman, the non-divisive former Philadelphia mayor, Ed Rendell. But the new chairman's mission is threefold. First, tell his affluent constituents what they want to hear. Second, take credit for everything positive that has come to pass in America over the course of the past eight years. And finally, criticize anything and everything that has happened under President Bush's watch thus far, including things he couldn't possibly have been responsible for.

In his praise of former President Bill Clinton's administration, McAuliffe is quick to point out, "Crime fell to its lowest level in a quarter century; the welfare rolls were cut in half." He fails to mention how it happened: a welfare reform package constructed by conservatives in Congress, which Clinton was wise enough not to veto, and tougher prison sentences and lower parole rates for violent crimes, enacted by state and local governments.

He then goes on to misleadingly slam the current president. In regards to the economy, McAuliffe states, "After a period of unprecedented prosperity, now we're beginning to see signs of a slow but sure fall-off · Half a million manufacturing jobs have been lost since January. And jobless claims haven't been this high in nearly eight years." He's absolutely right. But does he really expect people to believe that this can possibly be President Bush's fault? The economy has been slumping now for a good year and a half. Bush has been president for seven months.

Do the math, McAuliffe.

The Chairman is also quite fond of contradicting himself. In reference to Bush's tax cut, McAuliffe says, "With a stroke of the president's pen, the surplus that we fought and sacrificed for is virtually gone," but then speculates, "So if the economic projections don't pan out, they (Republicans) could be forced to raid Social Security and Medicare." McAuliffe first sounds convinced that the budget surplus is history, but then simply makes a guess at what might happen. Of course, he has no idea what's going to occur as a result of the $1.35 trillion tax cut, comparatively tiny to Ronald Reagan's $3 trillion-plus cuts of 1981 and '83.

McAuliffe then points out how little the average American gets out of the tax break: "· They get $347, less than a dollar a day." Bush and many congressional Republicans would have liked to have given more back, but the Democrats wouldn't hear of it.

It's hypocrisy, plain and simple.

McAuliffe goes on to prove that he's not interested in solving problems but only in passing the blame. In his criticism of Bush's education policy, he says that, "kids' classrooms will be more crowded and more dilapidated·" He makes no mention of the administration's push for school vouchers, in which children who are stuck in poor-performing public schools would be able to receive a free private education.

In regards to Bush's energy plan, he remarks, "Unbelievably, the plan unveiled by the president does absolutely nothing to address high prices at the pump," then further states, "Meanwhile, the administration is touting an energy plan that encourages increased oil and gas exploration at the expense of some of our most pristine ecological treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

Mr. Chaiman, wouldn't the proposed drilling in Alaska help bring down rising gas prices, as the president did, in fact, propose in his energy policy?

As correctly reported by ABC's John Stossel, the would-be drilling site would leave 99.99 percent of the refuge untouched. Moreover, the area to be drilled isn't that "pristine" to begin with. Each time the refuge is discussed on the news, file footage is shown of these beautiful Alaskan snow-capped mountaintops. The actual drilling area is a barren and quite frankly, ugly tundra uninhabited by living creatures.

So here's what it comes down to.

Chairman McAuliffe says he wants a solution to our energy problems but doesn't want to drill for resources. He wants higher education standards but is firmly opposed to vouchers. He wants to save Social Security but is against partially privatizing the system.

What happened to the spirit of compromise that elected Democrats have been advocating for the past seven months? Bipartisanship seems to be defined as when, and only when, Republicans come over to the left. And if the newly appointed DNC puppetmaster has his way, very little will be accomplished through 2004.