All Botoxed-up And Ready To Go!

Guests in the weely Gang-up:
Tom Gjelten, correspondent, NPR and is working on a book about Cuba, Sebastian Mallaby, columnist, Washington Post
Moises Naim, editor in chief, "Foreign Policy" magazine.

After disappearing for the last weeks of the elections she is back and ready to decorate!

Well, congratulations to the Democans! When the going gets good the good gets mushy. The elections simply mean this, when the economy is good it leaves voters time to complain or concentrate on other things. The same thing that happened to Bush 41 has happened to Bush 43. Although the economy was on a rebound during the last year of Bush 41 the electorate concentrated on Bush's failed promise of "no new taxes". And the same thing happened to Gore. Although the Clinton/Gore team left the economy in a fair to good state the electorate simply got tired of scandals and indictments. Gore just paid the price.

Now the Democrats interpret the results of this election as a homecoming from the moderates and the center to a left wing, "move on.org" Democratic Party; nothing further from the truth. In order, to win this victory the Democrats had to hide not only Rep. Pelosi and Reid but almost went into panic when Sen. Kerry once again showed the true colors of what the Democratic Party has become.

The Democrats had to support center to conservative Democrats in order to establish their left wing leadership on top of the key positions they believe rightfully belongs to them. But what they are missing is that it is not the Democratic Party that has won but the "Democans": the electoral demographics made of conservative to center independents, Reagan Democrats and new Republicans that felt left down by the lack of assertiveness of the Republicans when they not only controlled the bully pulpit but "the whole kit and caboodle", the ones that elected Sen. Lieberman.

Across the country every major social conservative issue from gay marriage to affirmative action was rejected by the voters. The Democrats have fooled themselves in believing their own propaganda and their own polls about the "war in Iraq". They have confused disapproval for the lack of conclusive vigor in the conduction of the war with approval of the withdrawal "plan" of the Democrats for Iraq.

It will be amuzing to watch how the portrayal of the war in the media will evolve from now on. It will be in the same manner that we now do not hear calls from the Democrats for investigations of voting machines even though they had preemptively claimed that fraud would keep the Republicans in power. Calls for recounts anyone?

Both parties need to learn something. When you win the majority you have to act like the majority. If the Democrats learn and apply this knowledge they will remain in power. If they listen to the electorate that put them in power and not to the left wing fringe, they will become once again the party of Sam Nunn, Joe Lieberman, JFK, Zel Miller, maybe even LBJ. If not they will temporarily remain in power as "Democans", sustained by an electorate that can just as well become "Republicrats".