The Jackass has a moonbat problem

With all of the attention that the mainstream media, talk radio and the blogs have been paying to the divisions in the Republican Party lately it was nice to see a reminder of the fact that the Democrats are even more deeply divided.

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — Of the three most recognizable Barneys in America, one is a singing purple dinosaur, another is a prehistoric cartoon character and the third is a gay congressman from Massachusetts.

Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, is as closely tied to the issue of gay rights as Barney Rubble is to Fred Flintstone. But recently, Mr. Frank has been under siege by gay rights groups.

They are angry because Mr. Frank has removed specific language about “gender identity” from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would protect gay men and lesbians in the workplace and that gay rights advocates say would now leave transsexuals and transgender individuals vulnerable.

There is almost no chance that President Bush would ever sign the bill. But the bitter tug of war between gay groups and one of their best friends on Capitol Hill is the latest example of how Democrats in Congress, since regaining majority control this year, have been torn between making compromises needed to pass legislation and satisfying the unrelenting demands of the party’s liberal base.

Mr. Frank, in an hourlong news conference on Thursday, defended himself and said he would press ahead with the bill knowing that by not including the transgender language he could attract enough votes to get it approved. But he also expressed frustration that the Democrats were hampering themselves.

“There is a tendency in American politics for the people who feel most passionately about an issue, particularly ones that focus on a single issue, to be unrealistic in what a democratic political system can deliver,” Mr. Frank said, “and that can be self-defeating.”

“This is a moment of truth for responsible liberals in the Democratic Party,” he added.

The tension between Democratic lawmakers and their base has been most visible on the Iraq war, where the insistence by some of the most outspoken antiwar groups on setting hard deadlines for the withdrawal of American troops has often handcuffed Senate Democrats trying to reach a bipartisan deal on legislation to change the war strategy.

To the delight of Republicans, it has also played a role in a host of other issues, including a fight over increased fuel economy standards in the energy bill, and demands for more spending on environmental programs in the farm bill.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi disappointed Democrats seeking major changes to the federal farm subsidy program — changes that Ms. Pelosi had supported in the past. Instead she adopted a more moderate approach that made some changes but left most of the subsidies intact and that she called “a good first step.”

On the energy bill, the Democrats struggled to navigate the demands of two powerful factions in their base: organized labor groups tied to the auto industry and environmental groups. Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, thwarted Ms. Pelosi’s efforts to increase fuel efficiency standards.

The liberal group MoveOn.org started a campaign that included radio advertising branding Mr. Dingell, who is 81, “Dingellsaurus” for opposing the energy standards that the group said would combat global warming.

Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said Democrats were struggling with tensions between the party’s liberal wing, which provided money and support for the 2006 elections, and the views of many freshmen Democrats who won office in moderate or conservative districts.

“The freshmen who actually won seats in districts that had voted for Bush, in conservative-moderate districts, having nothing in common with Code Pink or MoveOn,” Mr. Putnam said, referring to the antiwar groups.

“The base turns on them in every single case,” he added. “So at some point they have to stop falling into the trap of constantly playing to the base and try to solve problems.”

The Democrats' problem is a great deal more serious than the Republicans' because it represents a structural rift rather than a tactical dispute. In the Republican Party there is a disagreement over Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani is holding a slight lead over Fred Thompson in most polls for the sole reason that he is perceived to be the man who has the best chance of beating Hillary Clinton in next year's general election.

Most of the Republicans who are supporting Rudy would drop him in a New York minute if they came to believe that any other candidate had as good a chance of beating Hillary. All you need to do to confirm that is to look at the way his supporters talk about him. he is the "yes, but" candidate. "Yes he supports abortion, but he promises to appoint judges who will outlaw it". "Yes he supports gun control, but he made NYC the safest big city in the world". "Yes his personal life reveals an untrustworthy and immoral man of wretched character, but he cut taxes and stood up to the public employee unions", and so on. He leaves even his most enthusiastic supporters feeling like they need a long hot shower with hospital-grade antiseptic soap.

Maybe there's something profound here. The Clintons came to Washington and it soon became apparent that the nation's capital had been engulfed by a tidal wave of filth, yet he was reelected and left office with an approval rating of over 60% despite scandal, disgrace and impeachment. Maybe a lot of Republicans feel they need to fight sewage with sewage now that another Clinton is on the ticket.

But back to the Democrats. Their problem is that as much as 35% of their party are crazy as shithouse rats. A bit more than 3 in 10 Democrats look at Code Pink and don't see a bunch of nutjobs who are giving the anti-war movement a bad name. They see only brilliant and dedicated activists. They go to a gay pride march and see a bunch of naked men running around showing off their scrotal tattoos or a bunch of men dressed in B&D gear acting out various S&M fantasies and think that a great victory for tolerance and equality is being won. These are the people who take their children up to a soldier just getting off the plane from Iraq and tell the kids to look closely at the uniform because that's the way monsters dress.

These people literally cannot understand why the top marginal income tax rate has not already been raised back to 90% where it belongs. They cannot understand why the Democrat controlled congress hasn't already forced the nation to surrender to al Qaeda. They don't understand why the "fairness doctrine" hasn't already been used to shut down Rush, Sean, Laura, The G-Man and all the rest of talk radio and the Internet and Fox News.

They are too insulated from reality and too damn stupid to realize that they do not represent a majority of the American people and when congress does not do exactly what they want it to do, and RIGHT NOW, they cannot see it as anything but black-hearted betrayal.

The problem for elected Democrats is that while 30 - 35% isn't a majority it is sizable enough minority that they can't hope to win without it. If even half the moonbats jumped ship to a third party they would have no hope of either holding the legislature or retaking the White House. So the Democrat leaders must constantly walk a tightrope between the left-liberal and the left-lunatic while still trying to attract enough at least marginally sane swing voters to be viable.

No wonder they are desperately trying to enslave the middle class through ever expanding entitlements and restore voting rights to felons and grant amnesty to illegal aliens. The more people who will vote for them no matter how insane they look the less chance their party will blow apart from the internal pressures.