Time to grow a back-bone...

[Repo]

A funny thing happened in Ohio's Second Congressional District. In a special election Republican Jean Schmidt narrowly beat Democrat Paul Hackett by 52 percent to 48 percent of the vote. The funny thing is that Schmidt should have won the conservative district by 70% of the vote but she didn't. This can be spun as Schmidt being a weak candidate and that winning is all that matters or that a Democrat winning 48 percent of the vote in a strong Republican district is a sign that some Republican voters are being turned off by a Republican run Washington. It helped the Democrats that Paul Hackett was a strong candidate, a recent veteran of the Iraq war who had the credibility to stand up and call Bush a "chicken hawk.'' Maybe if Kerry had stood on the podium and called Bush a chicken hawk to his face, instead of trying to justify his various Iraqi positions, he would be president today...

There are a few things Democrats can learn from this defeat. First, put up credible candidates. Hackett is an NRA member that served in Iraq. Don't let gun control and gay marriage be the issues; they are loser issues for Democrats. Like it or not most Americans would rather have a gun in their house than a gay married couple. Make the issues that work for Democrats the issues that the candidates talk about, not the issues that work for Republicans. The issues that work for Democrats are the Iraq war and the deficit but just talking about them is not enough. The Democrats have to get a spine and stop being so diplomatic. They have to have the rage and conviction that Paul Hackett had in his campaign. Democrats have to start calling Bush and his administration names and hit hard. That is how the Republicans under Gingrich won the Congress in the first place and if the Democrats want to win it back any time soon they have to take a page out of the Republican playbook and hit hard and hit fast. If they are afraid of being called antiwar candidates by conservatives than they should reread the part that I stated where they need a spine. Most Americans now see the Iraq war as a mistake. They also see Republicans as big spenders and big government and the Democrats should be pounding away every day on television talk shows calling the Republicans the party of big spending, big government and the war machine; a party that will send Americans off to war with no end in sight at any cost no matter how much they spend in money or lives...

Next the Democrats need to question Bush's honesty, his relationship with Karl Rove and how despicable an act it is to reveal a CIA operatives' name, calling it an act of treason. Keep the "Rule of law" line against this White House just like the Republicans did against the Clinton White House. Lying under oath by a Bush official to a grand jury or an FBI agent is a crime. Questioning the integrity of Bush and his staff from the CIA leak to the Iraq war should be the number one priority and linking the Republican congressional candidates to Bush, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, the Iraq war and portraying them as misleading, big spenders. While at the same time noting Bush has still not captured Osama bin Laden or his second in command. ..

The congressional Democratic candidates need to be aggressive and stay clear of the soft-spoken senators with presidential ambitions. They need to take the Iraq war to their district and shove it down their Republican congressional opponent's throat. They need to remind their district that in event of another terrorist attack at home, that their state's National Guard may not be available because they are off nation building and fighting Bush's war...

If Democrat Paul Hackett could get 48 percent of the vote in a staunch Republican district, just think how much of the vote they could get in a district that wasn't gerrymandered too sway Republican. The choice for the Democrats is do they want to field candidates that are tough and angry or spineless wimps that are too afraid to lay the blame at the Republican run Congress and White House? It is time for Dr. Dean to give the Democratic Party a shot of adrenaline, for too long it has been run by the timid, too afraid to offend and not strong enough to win. The Democratic congressional candidates are not going to win anything running as the Republican Light candidates, they and their presidential nominee John Kerry tried that last time and it didn't work then and it won't work now. It is time for the Democrats to get a spine and let the Republicans defend their spending, their big government, their war, their nation building, their leaks and their lack of honesty or in other words, tell it like it is...