Democrats take charge!

For the Republicans' loss of Congress, credit public anger over Iraq. Not just because, as the president put it, "Iraq is not working well enough, fast enough," but the accusation -- often unchallenged by members of the mainscream media -- that "President Bush lied us into the war."

After the Democratic takeover of Congress, one pundit simply wrote off this hideous allegation as mere pre-election posturing. You know, just "politics." Thus, the Democrats slander the commander in chief during a period of wartime. And, after they win, it's just political chitchat.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, once posted on his website the alleged acts of the president that, in his view, constitute grounds for impeachment. Suddenly, before the election, Conyers removed this from his website. And incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calls the impeachment efforts now "off the table."

Surely, if the president indeed "lied us into the war," he damn well deserves impeachment. But now that the Democrats captured Congress, they suddenly stopped believing that President Bush sent men and women into harm's way as a result of a calculated, considered, deliberate deceit.

In 2000 and 2004, many Democrats yelled about "stolen elections" and voter "disenfranchisement." In a letter to Democrats in Ohio, John Kerry claimed that state election officials stole the election from him. But what of the lack of Republican cries of voter fraud, "disenfranchisement" and demands for investigations? Apparently, when Democrats win, elections function smoothly, but when Republicans win, the fix is in.

Pre-election, Democrats claimed they possessed a "unified" strategy to deal with Iraq. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had a "four-point plan." Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., the architect of the Democratic House takeover, touted his "five-point plan." But on election night, after the Democratic takeover became obvious, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., offered a slightly different perspective.

Sherman: I don't think the party has united behind a plan that is any more specific than we should leave a little sooner than George Bush has in mind.

Elder: That's not much of a plan.

Sherman: The voters did not require us to have a plan. . . . Nobody knows what's going to happen in the future and whether the Democratic idea or the Republican plan on this or that issue is going to be good. . . . Continued...