Democrats Finally Get Burnt

Vengeance, no doubt, is a sin. But it is very close to an innate human yearning for justice. In a world where crime consistently pays, a good man finds it impossibly difficult to stay a good man.

I bring this up because the most satisfying bit from last week’s elections was the Republican sweep in Minnesota, highlighted by Walter Mondale’s defeat in the Senate race.

It’s petty, for sure, but it restores one’s faith in the world to see Democrats finally–finally–get burnt for their cynical politicking and utter lack of shame. Not only that, one hopes that Democrats will stop listening to the most soulless among them–the win-at-all cost operatives who set the moral tone in the Clinton White House and the Terry McAuliffe national party.

When a few Democrats decided the memorial for Paul Wellstone was the right time to rally a crowd into a frenzy–turning what most Americans would say should be a somber and solemn occasion into a politically pep rally–Republican and conservative stomachs turned.

There was no disbelief among those who have watched this party since Clinton came onto the scene. In fact, what made it so upsetting for many was the suspicion that the Democrats would get away with this–that it would in fact work to their advantage.

We’d seen this most recently in New Jersey. Bob Torricelli, who had been sleazing the system all along, finally had it coming. After watching incredulously as anchors with straight faces praised Torch’s “excellent fundraising ability” and believed his claims that he thought diamond earrings he received were worth less than $50, we still saw the Democrats rally behind him.

When Torricelli’s sins finally came back to haunt him and justice seemed about to prevail, the Democrats pulled an act amazing in equal parts for its brazenness and lawlessness–flaunting the law and bringing in a relief pitcher–the courts upheld the move. And we knew that politically, they would get away with this.

Democrats seemed to relish in rubbing in our face how much they could get away with flaunting all rules of decency. The crowning moment of the Clinton presidency was his appearance on the cover of Esquire with his legs spread wide at the camera while he laughed at America.

He was reminding us that he could break all the rules and ignore all the laws, and his party would always line up behind him, embrace him, and he would come out unscathed. And he did come out untouched, again and again. After his shameful legacy, he was able to get his wife into the U.S. Senate from a state where she had no roots whatsoever.

Clinton cheated, got caught, lied about cheating, got caught and then lied about lying about cheating. What was the consequence of this? Two Republican House speakers lost their jobs.

Even the most basic rules for politicians get thrashed with no repercussions for Democrats. Teddy Kennedy and Barney Frank, two Massachusetts liberal Democrats broke the two fundamental prohibitions of politician ethics: Don’t get caught with (1) a dead girl or (2) a live boy.

In July of 1969, Ted Kennedy’s presidential bid was put off temporarily by his involvement in the Chappaquiddick death of Mary Jo Kopechne. But he won Senate reelection the next year and five times since. Kennedy was the most vocal critic of John Ashcroft’s integrity.

Homosexual Rep. Barney Frank’s boyfriend was found in 1989 to be operating a bisexual prostitution ring out of his home. For this minor indiscretion, which only came out because Frank was accused of abusing his power to get his pimp-boyfriend out of parking tickets, Frank received a reprimand and reelection. Frank was one of Clinton’s most prominent defenders.

Another Massachusetts congressman, Gerry Studds, got reelection and a marine sanctuary named after him following the revelation of his sexual affair with an underage male Congressional page.

But for some reason, one of the Democrats’ chickens finally came home to roost last week. The Democrats’ went a step too far in Minnesota with their rollicking memorial to Wellstone. Perhaps it was the boos for Trent Lott. Perhaps it was the chants of “Fritz! Fritz! Fritz!”

Maybe it was the complete incongruence between the man they purportedly came to honor–who believed in following just means to his leftist ends–and the win-at-any-cost, everything-is-political Clintonian event.

Or maybe it was just that Minnesotans–unlike the people of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey–actually expect decency.

Whatever it was, not only did the shameless rally cost Fritz Mondale his lead, it also sunk the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee and cost the election for Democratic Rep. Bill Luther.

The first important lesson to take out of this is the example set by Fritz’s conqueror, Republican Norm Coleman. Coleman, when egged on by reporters after Wellstone’s death, refused to campaign until “after Tuesday’s memorial service.” He was gracious and decent in the wake of the catastrophe. This gave voters somewhere to turn when they were offended by the Democrats.

While conservatives should all learn from Wellstone’s example, let us carry out from Minnesota the hope that the Democrats may have learned shame. They may have learned that politics, past a certain point, is self-defeating. They may have learned that there are rules that should be followed, and lines that should not be crossed. Rather than always listen to Carville and Begala, Democratic politicians may now understand that winning is not worth some costs.

One can always hope.