Maybe our Democratic Party does have some fight in it after all.  Other than its unified position against the Bush-Santorum effort to destroy Social Security by way of “privatization,” the national Democratic Party has largely been AWOL on virtually every other political and policy question since 9/11.  Yesterday, however, came a positive signal that the leadership is not going to allow President Bush to change topics so easily — that is, shift the battleground away from debilitating topics such as Iraq, Katrina, rising energy prices/Big Oil profits, Harriet Miers, fund raising scandals, and the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, and onto the more successful ground of right-wing pandering and sure-fire Culture Wars.

http://www.chuck2006.com
Just over one day after Bush’s nomination of anti-choice 3rd Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito to replace pro-choice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court, Democratic Senators forced the Republican-controlled Senate into a rare secret session to criticize Bush’s use of intelligence in the run-up to the American War in Iraq.  

“Time and again, this Republican-controlled Congress has consistently chosen to put its political interests ahead of our national security,” said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. “They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why.”

Much as the Democrats were taken aback by Bush’s early Monday morning Alito announcement, the Republicans appeared even more surprised by Minority Leader Harry Reid’s call.  And no wonder, since the Democratic challenge to Republican preeminence has been virtually non-existent since September 11, 2001.

With far more irony than he may ever realize, Republican leader Sen. Bill Frist said that the Senate “has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership.”  And with more truth than he may have intended, Frist charged that the Democrats, “have no conviction.  They have no principles.  They have no ideas.”

As everyone following my campaign knows by now, I am dedicated, first, to defeating Bob Casey, Jr., in the May 16, 2006 Democratic Primary, by waging an issue-by-issue and value-by-value campaign of full disclosure, and second, by repeating the same process in dismantling Rick Santorum on November 7, 2006.  Indeed, the only way to win back Pennsylvania’s junior Senate seat from the Virginia resident who masquerades as a Pennsylvanian during election years is to call him out on his hypocrisy, his bigotry, and his being owned by anti-American corporate interests.  Given my contrasting views with both candidates on an array of economic, social, and foreign policy issues, and the fact that I alone refuse to take corporate dollars, I invite you to support and participate in the unfolding of our winning strategy.

By now, I hope we can all agree that the only way national Democrats can win back control of the Senate and the House, the Presidency, and our federal courts is to fight like hell for the principles, policies, and democratic processes that are at the center of what makes America both a great and good nation.  For anyone paying even minimal attention to GOP politics over the last four years, it should be abundantly clear that the right-wing-dominated Republicans are not simply content with all power.  They want absolute power — at all levels of government — in conjunction with the New Empire-building neoconservatives, campaign-financing corporate and new-rich plutocrats, and socially-destructive radical-right theocrats.

In other words, since September 11th the GOP have been playing hard ball while the Democrats have been playing something akin to whiffle ball.  Perhaps yesterday’s Democratic effort to hold this Administration accountable for lying our nation into an Iraqi war that increasingly looks like the Vietnam quagmire of the sixties and seventies is a sign of hopeful days ahead.  Whether or not that becomes the reality in Washington, D.C., in the near-term, you can count on my campaign to continue modeling the winning ways of a progressive future — through grassroots/netroots organizing, hard-hitting messaging, and imaginative resourcing.