"Drunk with power"

Already the message is loud and clear... be afraid, be very afraid.

Why? Well the Democrats, "drunk with power", will actually perform their constitutional duty to provide oversight of the executive branch and conduct some investigations. (I've actually heard the term "drunk with power" used about a dozen times by right wing hacks on TV)

They're apparently hoping most folks won't recall that a week ago and for the past 5 years or so before that, the Republicans have controlled every branch of government the majority of statehouses and the supreme court and federal judiciary.

Now days after the Dems gained control of capitol hill, the media and pundits are freaking out and railing against something they've entirely made up in their own fevered imaginations. Namely, that the Democrats are going to storm the government and turn it into some radical liberal state. The way they're reacting, (and it's so-called reporters as well), you'd think that the Dems had announced that their first 100 days agenda consisted of legalizing heroin, tripling everyone's taxes, and forcing everyone to eat granola for breakfast.

Within a half hour today, a full 5 days after the election, I heard supposed reporters on MSNBC asking with a straight face whether Democrats will "learn their lesson" and not spend time on investigations (!!!) and if by Senate majority leader Harry Reid saying that there might RARELY be subpoenas issued, he was signaling an "all-out war" by the Democrats against the Republicans. It's nuts!

This is but a small example of the absolutely crazy drumbeat going on on cable news ever since the results of the election sank in. These people have been so thoroughly brainwashed that they essentially demand from any Dem panelist or guest that they promise that the party that the people just voted in do NOTHING to make Bush or his cronies uncomfortable. For heaven's sake, don't be MEAN, they seem to demand, as if the Republicans hadn't taken mean and made it an art form.

It's as if they're pleading that the Democrats don't hold any investigations into the rampant abuse of power and corruption that has been systematically ignored and winked at by the Republican congress.

Why is this?

Is anyone else as completely outraged at the spectacle of members of a party who has taken non-cooperation and division to unheard of levels, spent years abusing power attacking Clinton and everyone associated with him, has Karl Rove on a tax-payer funded salary with an office in the White House in charge of doing nothing but attacking Dems and making sure they have no power at all, now turning around and having the nerve to be wagging their collective fingers in Dems faces and warning them that they better be nice and share power and be "bi-partisan" and all the rest?

Isn't it beyond sickening to hear these people, who for six years wouldn't consult with Democrats, wouldn't allow them to hold hearings, wouldn't do a THING to cooperate or reach across the aisle, had a "K Street Project" where Delay and others made it known that if lobbyists wanted any access at all, they had to fire any Dems on their staffs and hire ideologically pure people that the Republicans approved of, told Patrick Leahy to go F himself on the floor of the senate, threatened to use a "nuclear option" in the senate if they didn't get their judicial nominations approved, a tactic never used before where by a trick of the rules they'd effectively have Cheney rule that they didn't have to follow the rules, now demanding that Dems behave themselves?

It's like the bully who now finds the scrawny kids he's picked on for years has been working out and is strong enough to kick his ass, standing there and demanding that his former victim be nice.

There is literally no end to the abuses that the Republicans have practiced on the hill, illegally holding open votes for hours longer than allow and bribing members on the floor to shift votes, and on and on and on. There has probably never been a more partisan government than that under Bush, with the Republicans treating Dems with contempt and scorn and ignored at every opportunity.

And now they're warning that the Dems not only better not do as they've done, but better damn well immediately start treating the minority with respect and involving them in decision making unlike what they've done for six years. And on top of that, these pundits declare that if they don't, they'll be "tossed out of office" real soon.

And the woman on MSNBC asks if the Dems will "learn their lesson", as if Democrats have been the bullies, and be more cooperative with Republicans??!!!! How nuts is that?

It's mind-blowing. Yet no one appears to see the blinding hypocrisy.

What exactly is so scary about Democrats holding hearings and trying to put things straight after 6 years of absolutely NO investigations or oversight and 6 years of corruption with the public for the most part being kept in the dark? Why are the media darlings wringing their hands at the mere prospect that someone might be held accountable?

And why are Dems running away from this, doing all they can to assure people that they won't be mean to those nice folks in the White House? The Bush administration is the most secretive White House in history by many accounts, yet, they demand, the Dems better not dare to even think about trying to find out what's gone on?

Bush, Cheney, and the rest have allowed rampant abuse and corruption, yet it's better if we don't go into that. Let's just move forward.

Yes. Let's move forward.

But let's make sure that the people who are responsible for this are exposed and held accountible, and let's make sure that the public realizes the extent of it so that it can be prevented in the future!

I don't recall this clammor for civility and moderation when the Republicans, for years on end, held so many hearings, and issued so many subpoenas to so many people, including many who went broke hiring lawyers, investigating the Clinton's Christmas card list and going through Hilary's underwear drawer? Where were these people then?

Granted, that era was sheer lunacy and it brought the government almost to a halt. Nearly a hundred million dollars was spent by a party who had nothing to offer but attacking Clinton and trying to bring him down.

Clearly, the newly majority Dems aren't going to be as obsessive and reckless, and truly "drunk with power" as the Republicans were then and have been in the past 6 years.

The Republican congress has done NO oversight, and has refused to investigate corruption or hold anyone accountable for 6 long years.

So please, can anyone tell me why the first order of business after the election is for nearly everyone on cable news to suggest that the Dems are going to be "drunk with power" and actually perform their constitutional duty to be a watchdog over the executive branch?

The second right wing talking point emerging is trying to suggest that IF the Dems don't damn well pay attention to them and not look too closely at what the Republicans have been up to the past 6 years, then by God, they'll be tossed out of office real quick.

The third, of course, is that Nancy Pelosi is some sort of tie-dyed radical from San Francisco and will have the entire country eating granola and singing Kumbaya.

This is typical outrageously exaggerated and twisted propaganda from the Republicans, so it's not exactly a shock. But the fact that the Dems have no one out there countering it is a bad sign.