reality-based educator

Here's an example of political genius at work via Tumulty and Allen in TIME Magazine:

In recent weeks, a startling realization has begun to take hold: if the elections were held today, top strategists of both parties say privately, the Republicans would probably lose the 15 seats they need to keep control of the House of Representatives and could come within a seat or two of losing the Senate as well. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who masterminded the 1994 elections that brought Republicans to power on promises of revolutionizing the way Washington is run, told Time that his party has so bungled the job of governing that the best campaign slogan for Democrats today could be boiled down to just two words: "Had enough?"

Gingrich's campaign slogan suggestion ought to be picked up by Democrats:

America, have you had enough of one party rule?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that misled you into a war that has cost 2322 American lives, thousands of Iraqi lives, and hundreds of billions of dollars?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that bungles natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and makes already tragic circumstances even worse through mishandling and/or apathy?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that refuses to make our borders and ports safe and sees no problem outsourcing port security to countries with ties to terrorism?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that has taken a $178 billion budget surplus and squandered it into a $354 billion deficit through financial mismanagement, shortsightedness and good old giveaways to their cronies?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that has run up the National Debt to $8.3 trillion dollars as of March 26, 2006 and spends $352 billion of your tax dollars every year on interest payments to the holders of the National Debt?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that sees the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries as a positive development for the American economy and worker?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that cares more for the multinational corporations which benefit from the outsourcing of American jobs overseas and welcomes the effects of globalization upon the American worker like lower wages and lower health care/retirement benefits?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that is preparing a "pension relief" bill for passage which the Financial Times says will allow employers to slash payments to already underfunded pension plans by tens of billions of dollars, ultimately undermining and/or bankrupting many pension systems to the benefit of multinationals and the detriment of American workers?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that attempted to destroy the Social Security program by adding "private accounts" for younger workers that would have bankrupted the program by siphoning off future payments from the current workforce that makes the whole program possible?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that creates a Medicare prescription drug law that amounts to a huge welfare program for drug manufacturers and is so confusing and full of red tape that most eligible senior citizens don't bother taking advantage of it?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that rewrites the bankruptcy laws for individuals to make it harder for Americans who have legitimately fallen onto hard times through job loss or illness and need to start over while ensuring that corporations can repeatedly declare bankruptcy and renege on pension/health care/wage obligations to their employees?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that plans to use wedge issues like flag-burning and gay marriage to rile up its right-wing base for the November midterms while ignoring the real problems that the nation faces, like the Iraq war, the economy, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, the housing bubble, energy prices, global warming, job outsourcing, etc.?

Had enough of an administration/ruling party that doesn't believe in the existence of global warming despite massive evidence to the contrary that we are approaching the point of no return in our destruction of the world environment?

America, have you had enough?