'06 Vote:Caveat Emptor

The Democratic Party's success last night was due to New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer and Illinois' Rep. Rahm Emanuel's selection of moderate to conservative candidates in districts and States that usually lean Republican on such issues as: abortion, guns and taxes. Therefore, the result does not portend a radically liberal new Congress or dramatic shifts in policy; i.e, cut and run from Iraq, immediate tax increases or the Impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Democrats did however tap into the emotional discontent of voters with Bush's prosecution of the War in Iraq by labeling every Republican who supported the President's "stay the course" strategy as part and parcel of the "rubber stamp Congress."

Schumer and Emanuel effectively managed to do so without offering a unified solution of their own. In fact, the Liberal Democratic Party ousted Joe Liberman in the primary but running state-wide as an Independent and never wavering on his support for winning the War, he trounced anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. But in Rhode Island, anti-war Liberal Republican Lincoln Chaffe, who voted NO for the War, unlike most of the Democrats, lost because he was a Republican whose victory might determine the majority in the Senate.

By remaining vague, Democrats forged an alliance with those who opposed the War from the beginning and those who supported the invasion but passionately disagree with how Bush has handled the transformation of Iraq into a peaceful Democracy. They've backed away from the radical "cut & run" anti-war faction who demand withdrawal of all troops NOW.

The new Democratic Congress realizes that the consequence of a hasty retreat will most certainly result in the slaughter of our Iraqi allies and the fall of Iraq to Islamic terrorist elements and perhaps, Iranian domination. Plus a defeat in Iraq will validate the perception of a Democratic Party that's weak on Defense and unable to protect Americans from Islamic terrorists or any enemy for that matter. They, as the new majority, will be responsible to the American people for the results of their actions.

The American people clearly voted for change. What that "change" means is as yet undefined by the Democrats. They have two years to show us that they're in sync with all the Democrats, Republicans and Independents that voted for them.

IF they deliver perpetual investigations of Bush Administration's "lies," defeat in Iraq, weakness on National Security vis a vis appeasement of BinLaden and failure to understand the real and present danger of international Islamic terrorism, by amending the Patriot Act, discontinuing NSA surveillance and granting terrorists the same legal rights as American citizens, then they are dangerously deluded.

IF their interpretation of "change" does not tally with that of the people who elected them; in '08, the fickle political pendulum will knock the Democrats Right out of the majority by the election of Republicans with a defined positive message and a Republican President who will exemplify the ethics and principles that keep the United States of America invincible and safe from all challengers of our freedom to make that change over and over again.