The classic explanation of the Yiddish "chutzpah" goes like this:
The kid murders his mother and father. Once before the judge, he asks for mercy. On what grounds? "Because I am an orphan," he says.
Yesterday George W. Bush campaigned in Tennessee, talking about better health care.
Yes, you read that correctly. President Bush, whose record on health care is unbelievably terrible, campaigned on health care. What chutzpah!
The Democrats' response? A speech on foreign policy.
Now I know Sen. Kerry's strategy is to go to the middle. He's looking for the votes of the "moderates," the "undecideds." He doesn't have to please me or any old-fashiond Democrat. We have no place to go.
But so what? Even if you are going after the middle-of-the-roaders, it makes sense to have a "Truth Squad" following Bush and responding immediately to his fantasies.
I fear the Democratic Party still doesn't understand that the Bush folks are not conventional opponents, that polite discourse alone will not win the White House.
Bush and his political operatives are serial liars.
Item: Their Medicare chief muzzled a Medicare auditor- the muzzler is now raking in big bucks as a lobbyist - and lied about its total cost to members of their own party! (Some old-fashioned Republicans found it pricey even when it carried the phony lower price tag.)
They outed Ambassaor Wilson's wife, telling reporters she is a CIA operative. This is illegal, but more important - indecent. (Karl Rove defended that to Chris Matthews, saying "She's fair game.")
I could list hundreds of lies, but why? It is perfectly clear that gangsters run the White House.
Kerry doesn't have to imitate them. However, he must identify and rebut every lie immediately for a lazy news corps.
Events are educating the electorate, slowly, to the character of this Administration, but the opposition cannot depend on them. Kerry must do his job. That job is, first, to point out that the Emperor has no clothes. Secondly, to tell folks he knows how to dress.