The American Spectator

Well, it looks like that “culture of corruption” ploy didn’t work out too well for Democrats last week in California. But after Brian Bilbray won disgraced Duke Cunningham’s seat, some liberals quickly changed tack to claim that he did it by using the illegal immigration issue as a “scare tactic.”

This sounds strange coming from folks who regularly warn that Republicans will starve children, throw old ladies out into the streets, etc., but such is life when you’re on a losing streak. Year after year, defeats leave modern Democrats scratching their heads and navel-gazing; trying in vain to hit upon better ways to “get their message out.” But that’s the problem. Their message has been resounding for decades: they’re liberals.

p>Some Democrats understand that one of the reasons they lose is that instead of finding ways to win, they’d rather rehash their losses. Washington Post writer Dan Balz points out : br> /p>

They are experts at commissioning papers analyzing their weaknesses. (“Why we can’t win with______.” Fill in the blank with “white men,” “married women,” “rural voters,” “people of faith,” “more Latinos,” “the middle class,” or whatever group is considered the party’s latest demographic debacle.)

br> In spite of this self-realization that they may be out of the mainstream, certain lefties out in cyberspace continue to delude themselves into thinking that the key to producing electoral victories is to harness the power of Al Gore’s Internet. Last week’s Las Vegas convention of liberal bloggers sponsored by Daily Kos is proof positive that these delusions will happily continue.

Remember, Howard Dean proved that raising a lot of dough from far-left extremists is not conducive to shutting them up. As Howard himself said of his supporters, “We listen. We pay attention. If I give a speech and the blog people don’t like it, next time I change the speech.” He changed the speech so often that in the end, it resembled nothing if not a primal scream.

Two years later, it seems as if history might repeat itself. As the Washington Times reports, “a poll earlier this year on the Daily Kos revealed 41 percent of those surveyed said they ‘despise’ Mr. Bush more than they despise Osama bin Laden.” And one patriotic “Kossack” remarking on the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi said, “Now we are rid of one murderous tyrant — how about the removal of another one — believed to be hiding in a safe-house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”