How Important Is 2008?

Yesterday the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the Colorado Congressional districts drawn by a judge after the State Legislature was unable to redistrict before the 2002 elections. Had there been a clear Republican majority in 2002, it's doubtful that we would have sent as many Democratic representatives to the U. S. Congress or to the State House as we have. The Republicans again tried to gerrymander the state in 2003, the resulting map was thrown out in subsequent court trials leading up to the Supreme Court's decision, finally putting the matter to rest in 2007.

There are those who believe that 2008 will be a slam-dunk. I'd love to think so but in 2006 we didn't get Matt Bryant elected despite the national anti-Republican trend. We can't afford to lose any opportunity to equate Republicans at all levels with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter, to equate their rule with lust for power and incompetence in its exercise, to point out that it was twelve years of Republican budgets that led to Walter Reed and the inability to respond to natural disasters. They wanted a Government that could be drowned in a bath tub. Instead, it drowned in New Orleans.

In three years we will be once again redrawing Colorado's political map. It is imperative that a Democratic majority do so. That is the importance of 2008, to build on our majority and to paint the State blue.

Walter Reed - Symbol of Republican Incompetence

I've seen it posted on blogs that the crisis at Walter Reed and other VA facilities is Bill Clinton's fault. He, they say, cut the budget for the facilities and for the military in general. While a number of the cuts happened on Bill's watch, truth is found in basic civics: The Congress holds the purse strings.

The Congress during Clinton's administration was Republican-controlled. They wanted a "peace dividend" following the fall of the Wall and the failure of communism. The Congress, with their power of the purse, cut funding for the Military, putting many of us out and reducing the number of bases, hospitals and facilities to treat the wounded.

So, the Republicans set the situation up. Furthering the incompetence was the current Administration. Their rosy-eyed predictions of easy victory, of tanks rolling over roses proved untrue. We armed but didn't armor our troops and they began to be injured in large numbers. The Pentagon reports about 27,000 wounded but if you take their own killed to wounded ratio, the number becomes closer to 56,000. That's a bunch more than the military health system was prepared or funded to treat.

So the next time a GOPer talks about supporting the truth, smile sweetly and ask them why they defunded Walter Reed and other military hospitals during the Clinton administration and why Bush didn't fund them when the need was known.