VOTING THEMSELVES OFF THE ISLAND

Two Sundays back, another edition of the reality show that wouldn't die - fittingly named "Survivo,r" came to a close, with an odd, "oooohh that was bad, REALLY bad" moment near the end. It seems that two of the final four contestants made a pact, where the one who had won the obligatory car prize giveaway agreed to give the car to the other contestant, in exchange for the other's promise to give the car winner immunity going into the final 3. The edited show still made out - in agonizing detail the hemming and hawing by the immunity promisor which culminated in his selfish-beyond-description decision to welsh on his promise - which he swore before God on television in the previous weeks, and kept the immunity for himself. Needless to say, this contestant -"Dreemz" turned his entire world into Nitemarez for the rest of his forseeable existence. He will forever be known as the guy who cheated his way to a free car - and he cost the other contestant the win in the game, too. Losers all around.

So it is with the Democratic leadership in Congress. They accomplished the unthinkable six months ago. They won all but one of the contested Senate races, and swamped their way in the House and returned both Houses of Congress to the Democratic side for the first time in twelve years. Unquestionably this was aided by the perception that too much dominance by the Republican party had opened the floodgates of sleaze and corruption; but equally above the fray of secondguesses is the notion that the American voters were fed up to here with Iraq, and wanted out. Wasn't that clear? Wasn't that obvious? How could that be misread?

So last month, when Commander Guy petulantly carried out his threat to veto funding legislation with concrete time tables for withdrawal, demanding that a blank check be sent to him or the "troops may suffer," no cohesive group of Dems stood up and said, "Blackmail, extortion and kidnapping are felonies, here's the same bill - I dare you to veto it again. Go ahead, make my day." Nope, instead they cowed themselves in the face of the only thing this President and his band of deferment wonks excel at: name calling. They sat by and hung their heads when Bush labeled their bill as "a political stunt." No one said, "no, dipstick, declaring the Mission Accomplished on an aircraft carrier is a political Stunt. Posing in front of an old church with artificial kleig lights and making recovery promises you have no intention of keeping - that's a political stunt. Oh, and making sure that every doggone public appearance you make is either propped up by military personnel or hand picked civilian sycophants, THAT's a political stunt. Sending you the bill we sent your Sorriness, that was leadership, that was doing what our constituents asked us to do."

So it really doesn't matter that some riders were attached, and that the minimum wage is gonna go up 2 bucks or that some of the uninsured children are now going to have money for coverage. That's right up there with telling the double amputee in the semi-private room to be happy, cause the patient in the next bed wants to buy your shoes. And to go through the very public agony over the last several days - this "oh no we better do as he says, or he'll make the troops suffer and we'll get in trouble" means that the Dem leadership is having its own "Dreemz moment." LOST doubts the public are gonna be in a forgiving mode on this one, which means that the only thing the party leaders have left is faith in the flaws of Americans' short term memory. I'd rather bet the farm on a pair of threes.