Democrats just can’t shake off Florida

Way back in May (when nobody was paying attention to me) I wrote a post called “Why the Democrats will lose big in 2004”. Here’s an excerpt:

For the Democratic Party, the contested 2000 presidential election was their bad beat and, two-and-a-half years later, they still can't shake it off. At a recent campaign event, Senator Joe Lieberman declared that he knows he can beat President Bush in 2004 because "Al Gore and I already did it." DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe uses every speech to paint Bush as an illegitimate president. The Democratic Convention next year will be dominated by a party base that takes it as an article of faith that Al Gore really, truly won the 2000 election. For these politicos, their hatred of President Bush will crowd out any reasoned dialogue and debate over real policy issues.

And now, as the Donks meet in Florida this weekend, all that tired, overheated rhetoric comes spilling forth again:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In the state that decided the 2000 presidential race, Democratic leaders on Saturday accused Republicans of stealing the bitterly contested election and pledged to avenge that loss next year.

"Al Gore won the state of Florida in 2000, and we should never forget it," Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe told a cheering, whistling crowd of state Democratic convention delegates. "We're going to beat George Bush again in the state of Florida in 2004."

Rock on, Terry. You’re the bomb.

Ralph Reed, a GOP strategist who was defending Bush in hallway interviews, said the Democrats' strategy of political vengeance will fail as it did in 2002, when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was re-elected despite McAuliffe's promise to defeat him.

"People want their leaders ... to talk about the future. They don't want anger and pessimism and personal attacks. They want a positive vision from leaders looking forward," Reed said as several delegates swarmed his informal news conference and chanted, "No GOP! No GOP!"

Democratic candidate Richard Gephardt seemed to agree with the GOP consultant. "We can't just dwell on the past. We've got to look forward," the Missouri congressman told reporters. His was a minority view at this gathering of Florida Democrats.

Gephardt then proceeded to dwell on the past, attack the president, and offer no forward-looking proposals. What a party - running on empty.