OP-ED: How The Elephant Got Stuck In The Mud

The moderate-conservative columnist, on Republicans: "The donkeys are anxious to capitalize on the apparent disdain the voting public has begun to feel toward the elephants, whom many see as having done little more than pad the pockets of the wealthy with tax cuts on the one hand, while spending, on the other, like drunken sailors in order to fatten the pockets of war profiteers.

All of those complaints are much simpler than what has actually happened - because what we have actually seen is a growing disdain for the self-righteous chest-thumping that began to be drowned out by the fall of one elephant after another from his pedestal of public purity. Scandals have arrived in every possible way, beginning with selling out to lobbyists who always seemed to know the price of a congressman or a senator." Mr. Crouch continues his commentary: "For all of this, I think it would be a mistake if the Democrats were to begin thumping their own chests and presenting themselves as the guys ready to change the sheets of the national bed of politics that have been turned smut-gray with Republican corruption.

Barack Obama is correct in saying that we now need a politics that can commit itself to national interests across party lines. That is far easier said than done. Bob Dole remarked during Bill Clinton's first term that the President tended to ignore the other side of the aisle because he assumed that the new mandate left no room for considering Republican positions. Dole said that that was not the way things actually worked in Washington - and that if a party refused to acknowledge the other side, it would soon learn the error of its ways.

Now, after almost 10 years of presenting themselves as very close to stiff-necked Christian fundamentalists, the elephants find it necessary to remake themselves. We will see what happens tomorrow, but we can be sure that, once heard, the will of people will have to be answered almost immediately. Do not be deceived by the holier-than-thou Bible beating, the mudslinging and the finger-pointing. The elephants, however much they would like to pretend that their policies always come down from heaven by way of Wall Street, are politicians first and foremost. Those who are not will find themselves having to wave a long goodbye to substantial influence."