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Jewish World Review Nov. 12, 2002 / 7 Kislev, 5763

Cal Thomas

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Consumer Reports

PLEASE, House Dems, elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as your new minority leader

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | If, as expected, House Democrats elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco as their new minority leader on Thursday (Nov. 14), they will have given Republicans two major victories in less than 10 days.

The first victory, on Election Day, gave Republicans control of Congress and the White House for the first time in half a century. The second will come with the election of Pelosi as minority leader. It will allow Republicans to again invoke the image of Democrats as the big-government, high-taxing, over-regulating, entitlement-establishing, unaccountable, irresponsible, gun-confiscating, totalitarian-coddling, peace-at-any-price, ACLU card-carrying, same-sex- marrying, unrestricted-aborting, anything-goes philosophy of the Dukakis-Mondale-McGovern extreme left wing of their party.

Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas), who briefly sought to challenge Pelosi for the leadership job, said, "To be successful (Democrats) must speak to the broad center of the country .. The battleground seats . are swing, marginal, moderate and conservative areas. If we want to write off all those seats, if we want to say, 'We want to be to the left, and we want to be pure,' we will be a permanent minority party."

In what could be an epitaph for Democrats in the 2004 election and beyond should Democrats refuse to isolate their left wing, Frost added, "If it's a question of being pure all the time, just standing by certain fundamental beliefs and never compromising, we will be in a minority party for the foreseeable future, and we will have less Democrats than we do today."

Frost endorsed Pelosi when he saw that she had the votes, but his analysis is correct.

Pelosi's voting record is a classic in liberal profiling. For the past two years, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 100 percent rating. The same 100 percent approval came from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL). Pelosi supports abortion on demand at any time, for any reason. She has voted against a measure to outlaw the procedure known as partial birth abortion, which sucks the brains from a fully developed baby as he/she emerges from the birth canal. She voted against a bill that would outlaw transportation of minors across state lines for the purpose of obtaining an abortion unless it was to protect the girl's life.

Pelosi wants the federal government to offer marital status to any type of human relationship. Six years ago, she was quoted in the San Francisco Examiner as saying, "Should you find yourself in a situation where your child or close relatives or close friends find solace, happiness, confidence, love and support in a relationship that's appropriate for them, wouldn't you want them to have the legal recognition they deserve?"

Would the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and the party's congressional candidates like to put that question to the voters?

Democrats have been without new ideas for so long that for their party bankruptcy would be a step up. All they do is whine and complain about Republican "extremists" and demagogue about the elderly, race and class. Their religion is big government. The government is their shepherd, they shall not want. Yea, though the afflicted and discriminated against, the angry and ignored walk through the valley of the shadow of poverty, Democrats will be there comforting them with entitlement checks and empathy. Their lives won't improve, but to Democrats independence and self-sufficiency mean the end of their political power.

New York Times culture columnist Frank Rich last Saturday (Nov. 10) offered his remedy for the disease afflicting the Democratic Party: "A unified vision composed of actual policies and principles, as opposed to knee-jerk liberal sloganeering, cynical political strategies and anti-Bush whining, is now required."

It may be required, but Pelosi and the rest of her special interest-satisfying, Fidel Castro wing of the Democratic Party aren't about to go there. They would rather be left than president. If Republicans plan their strategy right, Democrats will surely get their wish in two years and possibly for some time to come.

The late GOP Chairman Lee Atwater could beat this San Francisco Democrat with both of his blues guitar-playing hands tied behind his back.

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JWR contributor Cal Thomas is the author of, among others, The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas Comment by clicking here.

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