Ex-Democrat muses at Dean and Pelosi and Reid

An excellent diagnosis by Bull Moose describes the perennial impulse of the Democrats to desert a large tent in search of a bolt-hole where they can all feel comfy in their righteousness.

Hillary Clinton has moved to the center and Joe Lieberman has followed her. Both are ready for Prime Time nationally and could attract the all-important independent centrist votes that the Dems absolutely require to win the Presidency in 2008.

However, the Dems have now snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in five of the last seven national elections [and the media-boosted Perot weirdness in '92 got Clinton a win he probably didn't deserve]. But does this woeful record of second-rate politics instill a sense of sobriety in the Dem party leadership?

Nope.

I left the Dems when I finally figured out that the leftist fringe of the party wields inordinate weight in primaries, dooming the mid-term elections and the quadrennial national ticket to perpetual losing status.

Pelosi and Dean represent constituencies way far to the left of national Dems and Reid doesn't possess leadership qualities worthy of the position of Minority Leader [luckily for the Dems, the Republican Majority Leader also lacks those qualities].

There has to be some sort of perestroika movement among the Dem leadership. It appears that the cultural nihilists like Pelosi and Dean have inordinate influence in the party due to the SF and Vermont bases where they cut their political teeth.

Reid is a pro-Life maverick who must ride herd on hard-left lifers who have made peace, evidently, with the Dems permanent minority status, all the while baying at the moon about the Iraq War and culture-war where they believe they might get advantage.

In short, the Dems have maverick lefties trying to herd the country leftward during a time of prosperity.

But Bush's comeback demonstrates that the economy, stupid, and lower gas prices trump any soaring toward the moon by twilight flocks of bats.