Has the Major Media Become Republican?

No, it hasn’t.  Yet when both TIME and Newsweek feature George Bush’s dream opponent — Howie “Dizzy” Dean — on their covers in the same week, when Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings gush over him and the editors of The New York Times do all they can to promote his candidacy, you’ve got to wonder.

Are all of them engaged in a conspiracy to destroy the Democratic Party?  There is hardly a single staffer in the White House or the Republican National Committee that hasn’t got their fingers crossed over Dean.  They are holding their breaths, unable to believe their luck that the Dems would commit hara-kiri over him.  What has stunned them most of all is how the liberal media establishment is aiding and abetting Democratic Party masochism.

Have you noticed there is hardly a peep of Republican criticism of Dean?  It’s an old political adage that when your opponent seems bent on self-destruction, do not interfere.  Maybe it’s just a summer madness, the Reps figure, maybe the Dems will come to their senses by fall or during the February primaries — but you won’t see many GOP attacks on Dean in the coming months.

That’s why the first time you heard the sobriquet “Dizzy” applied to Dean is right here.  Be assured that should he actually succeed in gaining the nomination, Dizzy will quickly be Dean’s first name, replacing Howard, for every Republican in America.

As every baseball fan knows, the original Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean is one of the greatest pitchers and most beloved figures in the history of baseball.  The St. Louis Cardinals’ “Gas House Gang” of the 30s was legendary, and Dizzy was the star, winning 30 games and the World Series in 1934.

Dizzy Dean the pitcher was loved by all America for his goofy grammar and good-natured humor.  Dizzy Dean the politician is loved by a small number of Americans who can’t overcome their bitterness towards George Bush. 

Here’s a guy who thinks he can get elected President of the United States by telling voters he’ll raise their taxes (just like he did as Governor of Vermont) and that “I guess getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a good thing.”  Being pro-tax and anti-national security is not a winning electoral recipe.  Yet the “Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party” has convinced itself it is.

The passions of this wing have coalesced into an outfit called MoveOn (www.moveon.org).  The name is cosmically ironic, because “moving on” is the one thing its members can’t do.  They can’t get over — move beyond — their bitterness towards GW’s winning the presidency in 2000.

The hatred for GW that has unhinged the Dizzy Dean Democrats is visceral, felt deeply in their gut, visceral in the way conservatives despised Bill Clinton.  Conservatives weren’t, however, bitter towards Slick Willie.  They found him disgusting and immoral.  Conservatives despised Bill Clinton for his vices.  Liberals despise George Bush for his virtues.

They can’t let go of their bitterness because the source of that bitterness is fear.  George Bush’s basic moral decency, his intelligence and courage in defending America, are such a total refutation of their values it terrifies them.  Something that terrifies you, and shows you up to be phony in the process, is something you will hate and wish to destroy.

What the Dizzy Dean Democrats will end up politically destroying is themselves and their party.  They are on the verge of becoming the Whigs of the 21st Century.  America has always had a two-party political system — but it hasn’t been the same two parties.  The Whigs were one of America’s two major parties for several decades of the 19th Century, then dissolved, replaced by the new Republican Party.  The Dizzy Dean Democrats may well lead their party into a similar oblivion.  I must admit I never expected that their enablers in such destruction would be the liberal media.