TO THE BARRICADES!

That great sage Yogi Berra once said, "It’s deja vu all over again". I’m having that feeling this morning as I ponder the latest shenanigans in Washington. Earlier this week, the Senate Democrats forced that August body into a rare secret session to demand their investigation into the pre-war intelligence lapses regarding WMDs be moved forward at a faster pace. The move was part of an over-all effort to convince the American people that "Bush lied, people died".

It is all so very familiar. "It’s not about sex, it’s about perjury". That was the battle cry in the mid-nineties as the right wing of the GOP pushed their representatives in Washington to make political war with the President, right up to the point where Bill Clinton was impeached by the House (and acquitted by the Senate). Cooler, calmer heads in Washington tried to convince the true believers that they had moved beyond the bulk of the populace in their efforts to prove that Bill Clinton was a liar (or worse). The majority of Americans, they insisted, just did not buy the assertion that the President was corrupt in any important way. Yes, they bought the idea that he was a womanizer (to use an old-fashioned term that seems to perfectly fit his behavior). Yes, they were disgusted by the fact that he cheated on his wife, and in the Oval Office, no less. But they simply did not think those things outweighed the man’s performance as President. He wasn’t stealing their money, or putting their sons into harm’s way. The nation was at peace, and prosperity was evident across the land. It was in that context that we saw the efforts of the right wing fail, and the political consequences were clear. The GOP lost ground in 1996, 1998 and 2000.

Today, it is the left wing of the Democratic Party that is working itself into a frenzy. First it was the "stolen" election of 2000 (Bush was see-lected, not ee-lected). Now, it is "Bush lied, people died". Just as in the 90s, the true believers really believe it. The right wing really believed Bill Clinton committed perjury, and worse. Many thought him a traitor (arms to China, demonstrating in Moscow during Vietnam), a draft dodger, a rapist, a drug user, a thief, even a murderer. I know. I talked to these folks almost every day during that period. I’ll never forget one caller who seriously asserted that Clinton would not allow a free election in 2000, but would declare an emergency and continue to hold power.

Now it is the "moonbat left" that is asserting itself. They, too, believe all sorts of things about George W. Bush. To them he, too, is a liar, a draft dodger, a drug user, a thief, even a murderer. (In fact, about the only difference I can see between the extreme rhetoric that was used to describe Clinton and that is now used to describe Bush is that no one, to my knowledge, on the left has asserted that Bush cheats on his wife). Could it be possible that we are seeing a re-run of the politics of the 90s?

Only time will tell, but this is what I think will happen. Most Americans are going to reject the over-heated rhetoric. Most Americans are not buying the "Bush lied, people died" mantra. Just as they knew Clinton had erred by having his affair with the intern, they know that Bush erred by asserting that Saddam had WMDs. But most people are also willing to believe that Bush did not make that mistake in a vacuum. He made the mistake because the CIA and our other intelligence agencies got it wrong. He made it because the British, French and Israelis got it wrong. The reason you don’t hear Bill Clinton criticizing Bush about Iraqi WMDs is because he also believed that Saddam had them, and was trying to acquire more.

In the 90s, the American people decided that Bill Clinton’s mistake was personal in nature and, therefore, did not rise to the level of removing him from office. Today, I believe they are also deciding that George W. Bush’s mistake about Iraqi WMDs were not the result of deliberate malfeasance and, therefore, does not rise to the level of removing him from office. In both cases, when the people had a chance to vote, they re-elected the President and helped the President’s party gain some political ground. If the Democrats continue to ratchet up the rhetoric about the President, they run the very real risk of continuing that process.

The irony this time is that, unlike the anti-Clinton effort in the 90s, the opposition party has some real issues to run on. Rising energy prices, the dislocations created by a global economy, rising health care costs, federal budget deficits, poor governmental responses to natural disasters and, most significantly, a grinding, costly war in Iraq. If the Democrats set aside the "Bush lied, people died" mantra and, instead, put together a plan to address those issues (as consultant James Carville is currently putting together, much like the 1994 GOP "Contract with America") they might just make some political headway. But that would be the reasonable course, which would not satisfy the loudest voices, who cannot help but cry "To the barricades". It feels so much better to paint your opponents as devils, and the fight as a matter of good vs. evil, rather than as a political disagreement over policy between people of generally good will and intentions.