Posted 10:09 AM by Robert

Tea and Sympathy

Various deeply annoyed Democrats were on the air late last night saying that the results of this election may be to pull the Democratic Party left and into a more confrontational mode with the President over the coming Iraq incursion.

Of course, the Democrats are free to do that if they like.

But after some hours of contemplation, the Man Without Qualities cannot think of a real world scenario that would be more likely to cause Georgia Senator Zell Miller to abandon the Democrats than the confrontational, leftish proposals that last night were being vetted, and are still being vetted, by irate Democrats.

So as the Democrats work through the spells in their edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in planning for their eventual reincarnation in whatever form, no doubt the White House will be having sweet little tea parties with the Senior Senator from Georgia.

Perhaps they will be tea parties in which offers to respect Senator Miller's full seniority (and then some) post-switch might be on the etagere along with the clotted cream.

UPDATE: So far, the Democratic leadership seems to be in deep denial. House Minority Leader For The Moment Gephardt told the New York Times:

"What you've got to look at is the incredible amount of special interest money that was on their side. ... There were races where we were outspent 4 to 1, 5 to 1, the pharmaceutical companies probably spent $60 million across the country."

But it wasn't the pharmaceutical companies that made the Democrat-rich minorities stay home in elections which, despite all predictions to the contrary, had pretty high turnout in other constituencies.