A New National Record

Day Four - Today we made over 40,000 calls. 40,000! That is a new national record for a single district in a single day, and half of those calls came from our small group. The record is exhilarating, but by the end of the day, I was on the edge of burnout. I openly mourned in one call, "There comes a time when one can barely remember his own name, let alone those of his candidates," but I had fun, and really feel that we did some good. Some of those I called were also exhausted by all of the calling, but we are all buoyed by the fact that tomorrow is it! Dave Reichert and the majority Republican Congress FTW! (And then no more calls, FOR TWO MORE YEARS!)

The staff kept us well stocked with water, sandwiches, and pizza, and the hotel had fruit and another grand breakfast. I made myself a chocolate waffle, adding half a packet of hot cocoa mix to the waffle mix.

The Democrats have been spinning the media hard today, but I really don't believe there are enough of them to swell the voting ranks to win the House and the Senate. The prospect of Nancy Pelosi being House Majority Leader is downright scary. She was a political misfit to begin with, and I don't see her as any kind of solution to "balancing Bush power."

Are Republicans really abusing the control we have given them? I don't think so. I admit to discomfort over high oil prices (my car requires Premium gas), and am not convinced Bush was motivated to do everything necessary to resolve the oil crisis, but nightmarishly worse things could happen with a raging Democratic House led by Ms. Pelosi. The war? What a disgrace if we pull out now! We did the right thing, and it will stay the right thing, and Democrats will not get to rewrite history if I have anything to say about it. We are on the right track, and it is not the time to let a party of bandits run us off that track. I actually read one editorial suggesting that Democrats should vote for Democrats who are far worse than Bush in order to put Bush in check... Where is the legitimacy and reason in that?

Bush made a decision. Bush made the right decision. And Bush should stick with it. As an Iraq Veteran, and someone who was part of the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, and knowing exactly what we did and did not find, that is my unwavering opinion:

DON'T LOOK BACK.

We did the right thing at the right time, for the right reasons. We found enough to justify our actions, and where would we be with Iran if they had the now death sentenced dictator of Iraq as a security blanket? (Not that Iraq and Iran are friends, but geographically, Iran would be too isolated to fear retribution for their nuclear ambitions.)

Can we really trick ourselves into believing Iraq is nothing more than a second Vietnam? Wake up, you who smell coffee. Along with the thorns, there are roses blooming in Iraq, and I ask you not to dig them out.

My prediction--due to efforts like ours and the intrinsic weakness of the Democrats' chosen platform (have they told you what they are for, or merely who or what they are against!), the Republicans will keep control of both House and Senate. Republicans maintain their moral majority mandate, in spite of Democrat propaganda and propiquery, and we all have a merry and white holiday season to ride out bad feelings. The media has stirred up a rattlesnake nest (Nancy and party) and it's time to handle it, tame it, and let it go, both for Republicans and moderate Democrats. Is the grass really greener on the other side? Cough, cough, choke.



Jed Merrill

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