MoDo's Looking for Balls

In the Democratic Party. Not the ones you dance at, the ones that show you have some backbone.

Looking for a Democratic Tough Guy, or Girl - New York Times: "Two of them, who could have stopped W. and Dick Cheney before they undid 230 years of American democracy, didn't, because they allowed themselves to be painted as girlie men. The other, a manly girl, has been so cautious and opportunistic about weighing in on everything from Schiavo to Alito and Iraq that when she finally sang out on Monday and railed against W., she sounded more soprano than basso profundo.

It was easy for the Republicans to play their usual gender games and dismiss the three Democrats as whiny, shrill and ineffectual.

After Mr. Gore and Senator Clinton went on the attack, Scott McClellan rebutted: 'I think we know one tends to like or enjoy grabbing headlines. The other one - sounds like that the political season may be starting early.' He rubbed Mr. Gore's nose in the fact that he is not the president fighting the terrorists, noting: 'If he wants to be the voice for Democrats on this debate over national security, we welcome it.'

To lead, and not just conduct campaigns that parrot the liberal elite's editorial pages, you have to shape your own identity and political destiny. And ever since the 2000 race, the Democrats have let Republicans caricature them as effeminate. The Democrats have let the G.O.P. give them their shape, and it's an hourglass.

There are moments in campaigns and policy debates when it's possible to knock the sword out of your opponent's hand. Al Gore and John Kerry whiffed. Mr. Kerry and Senator Clinton held the president's coat as he rushed to war.

This all allowed the Bushies to use 9/11 as a shield and a bludgeon. They made their own rules and cast themselves as renegade heroes.

If the Democrats are like the dithering 'Desperate Housewives,' the Republicans have come across like the counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer on '24': fast with a gun, loose with the law, willing to torture in the name of protecting the nation. Except Jack Bauer is competent.

The Democrats' chronic impotence led to the Republicans' reign of incompetence."

Nice sentiments, good luck with that, there are no balls to be had.

The Dems currently have no one I would vote for and fortunately for them the Repubs don't either. I'm pretty sure the rest of the country (and I know the blogosphere) feels the same way. It is time for a new party, one that represents the people, not the corporations.

Tags: Bush, Democrats, MoDo, Maureen Dowd,