Ray Malone's Commentary

One of the most striking differences between the two parties is how the Democratic party office holders as well as rank and file react to media criticism as opposed to the office holders and members of the Republican party.

Take the Clinton-Monica story for example. When Matt Drudge broke that story on his web site, many in the media felt Clinton's days in office were numbered. Sam Donaldson of ABC was quoted as saying that he thought Clinton would be gone in days. He figured the Democrats would turn on Clinton. They did not

Clinton survived! Do you know why Clinton survived and Nixon did not? The answer is clear. The Democrats backed Bill Clinton and the Republicans turned on Nixon. The Democrats gave a ton of supportive quotes to the media. Only one Democratic Senator even said a mildly critical word about the Clinton-Monica affair. That was Joe Lieberman. And other Democrats jumped on him. Joe Lieberman was trashed by his fellow Democrats for turning on Clinton.

Each day found some Democrats on the media's case for making a big deal of a consensual sex story. The fact that Monica was under age and a White House intern when Clinton seduced her was presented as no big deal by every Democrat every day.

Look at what happens when President Bush does a perfectly legal thing such as firing attorneys that by law serve at his pleasure. Several Republicans tell the media they are opposed to President Bush firing incompetent federal attorneys. And Republicans voted to issue subpoenas to Rove and others in the Administration that were involved in the decision to fire the attorneys.

Many of these same Republicans never lifted a finger when Clinton fired every one of the federal attorneys shortly after he took office.

The media is certainly biased. But no Republican ever gets on their case or even defends a Republican under attack. Anne Coulter makes a speech in which she makes a funny comment that could destroy a possible Democratic President and the rank and file conservative blogs are full of stories condemning Anne.

A Democrat making far worse statements about a Republican would not even cause a ripple in the media and if it did Democrats would come out of the woodwork to defend that Democrat making the statement.

Think about it a second. Bad news sells. Nasty news sells. You are a reporter. If you get a far fetched story attacking a Republican and air it most Republicans will attack the object of the story. If you get a far fetched story attacking a Democrat, almost the entire Democratic party will attack the Reporter.

If you were in the media needed something bad to say about a politician and you had two stories... one about a Republican and one about a Democrat.. .which do you think you would publish or air.

Look at Republican candidates the way Democrats look at Democratic candidates. The liberals get out and work for them. They may oppose a moderate in the primary, but come the general election the liberals work their tails off for their parties candidates. And guess what.. when it comes time for that moderate Democrat to vote on a liberal issue the liberals who elected him are front and center asking for his vote. It is very very hard to turn the liberals down. After all the moderate Democrat would not have is office with out the hard work of the Liberals. A large percentage of the time the moderate Democrat votes liberal.

What do Conservative Republicans do? They withhold their votes from moderate Republicans. If the moderate gets elected he has no need of conservative votes. He got elected with out them. Elected RINOs always vote RINO. They don't owe the Conservatives anything. The RINOS that don't make it are replaced with Democrats. Democrats nearly always vote liberal.

If the Conservative Republicans worked to elect as many RINOs as they could, those RINOs who got elected would defeat a liberal Democrat. They would also owe a big debt to the Conservatives who elected them. If they want to get reelected they would need to vote Conservative a lot of the time. If RINOs get elected without conservative support... they just give conservatives a vulgar sign with their fingers.

Conservatives typically do the equivalent of sticking a 38 pistol up their rump and say to the RINOs if you don't vote my way I am going to pull this trigger.

There are about 17 states that are evenly divided between the two parties. That means that about 30 senators will always be elected by moderates. Failing to understand that moderates vote for RINOs and DINOs is just stupid. And conservatives in such states who do not try to elect RINOs are the primary reason the Stupid party is Stupid.