Left Swerve

How quickly we forget our past mistakes. After getting our heads handed to us in the 2002 midyears the Democrats seem to be content to drag the presidential hopefuls to the Left fringe. Of course it doesn't help when one of the first tests of strength is in the pacifistic and populist territory of Iowa where they care more about grain subsidies than protecting our country from tyrants.

Now comes word that uber lefty Congressman Kucinich will enter the presidential sweepstakes. According to the former boy mayor, "inspections are an adequate substitute for war." I'm sorry, Congressman, but only total and complete disarmament is an adequate substitute for war.

Not only does Kucinich lead the Progressive Caucus, but enjoys support from Ralph Nader. Perhaps if Al Sharpton was not feasting on his own megalomania he would support Kucinich, too. This is exactly the sort of candidate that cost the Democrats the White House for most of my lifetime and has cost us control of Congress for most of the past eight years.

With the exit of Bill Clinton from the Democratic stage, the party has lurched back to the Left, starting with Al Gore doing his best Mike Dukakis impersonation. Now, we have three avowedly anti-war candidates (Dean, Sharpton and Kucinich) and, with the exception of Joe Lieberman, a cadre of hedging shysters. Kerry, Gephardt and Edwards all supported the Congressional resolution giving the President authority to use force. But since their vote, they have continued to duck and cover in fear of alienating the Lefties that still control the Democratic primaries and caucuses. Only Joe Lieberman has stood strong in support of ousting Saddam Hussein. (I might add that Senator Graham, if/when he enters the race, will be the other hawk.)

But there is an opportunity for the Democratic Party here. Someone can have a "Sista Souljah" moment. Will Joe Lieberman step up and take Kucinich and the other Saddam appeasers in the Party to task? Who will remind Democrats of their storied foreign policy past with such figures as Woodrow Wilson, FDR, JFK? At one point in our history it was the isolationists of the Right that wanted America to stick her head in the sand, ostrich-like, while the world crumbled. Now it is the appeasers of the Left. How sad for the Democratic Party that once was led by the man who stared down Kruschev that they should now avert their eyes to the horrors and threat of Saddam Hussein.