SEND THESE DEMOCRATS BACK TO THE MINORS
By Richard Reeves
Syndicated Columnist
Thu Nov 7,10:03 PM ET
LOS ANGELES -- When he was still pitching for the New York Mets, I asked Tom Seaver how much luck had to do with winning and losing in the national pastime.
"Luck means nothing," he answered. "Luck might affect tonight's game, but over a long season it evens out. The good teams win and the bad teams lose."
"What about Jim McAndrew?" I said, asking about a young pitcher with a good earned run average who never seemed to win very much.
Seaver said: "He's just not good enough. He's not going to make it in the big leagues."
That, I think, is the story of Tuesday's elections. The Democrats just aren't good enough. The off-year elections were actually close, at least in earned numbers, but the Republicans won almost every close race -- a sure sign that they're just the better team.
In politics as in baseball, the better teams find some way to win. They do what they have to do, even if that means running sleazeballs like Saxby Chambliss questioning the patriotism of a war hero like Max Cleland of Georgia. The lousy teams go home early.
The Democrats better think about rebuilding. Their biggest winner, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, was a 78-year-old free agent. So, they should do what a losing baseball team does: Fire the manager, retire some of the old guys, and trade away whoever they can to get some younger prospects. They need new players and new material.
Among those who have seen better days: Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Terry McAuliffe; former all-star Al Gore (news - web sites); fading legend Bill Clinton; and a trio of utility infielders hitting in the .200s, Tom Daschle in the Senate, Dick Gephardt in the House, and Patty Murray, chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
There was the manager, McAuliffe, on "Meet the Press" the Sunday before the election, smiling his goofball smile, saying that President Bush (news - web sites) had "made a strategic error" in putting his own prestige on the line by campaigning around the country for any Republican with a pulse, and enough wit (or lack of same) to do whatever it took.
Obviously, McAuliffe, who paid for his job by raising money for the Clintons, husband and wife, would not know a strategy if it came over the plate belt-high and slow. Gore, who managed to lose a close one to Bush two years ago, has been on the disabled list for all but a week or so since then. Bill Clinton, violating curfew night after night, was as charming as ever to no effect whatever. And Daschle and Gephardt should be sent down to Triple-A ball.
Even the Democratic winners looked bad. Out here in California, Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) had expected to win by about 30 points and then begin holding news conferences denying he was already the front-runner for the 2004 Democratic nomination for president. Instead, he is trying to explain how he almost lost an election in which he was essentially unopposed. Davis, who spent more time raising money than McAuliffe, spent a good part of his election night running behind Bill Simon, a Republican klutz with two right feet.
The local paper, the Los Angeles Times, stoutly urged Democrats to fight on -- it does the same for the ever-rebuilding Los Angeles Dodgers -- declaring that the Republicans do not really have a mandate, then saying: "The margin of victory in both the Senate and the House was far too narrow to support the conclusion that the electorate has moved decisively to the right. The internal disarray and timidity of the Democrats surely played as much a part in pushing the GOP over the top as Bush's shrewd and relentless focus on the war against terrorism."
They got that last part right, but the paper did not go far enough. The real movement of the campaign was by timid and confused Democrats moving decisively downward. That club, like the Dodgers, is not going to beat anybody. The Democrats are just not good enough.
I was shocked all those years ago when the best pitcher the Mets ever had told me his teammate just wasn't good enough.
"How can you be so sure?" I said.
"Could you stand in front of the city room of The New York Times," he said, describing the place where I worked then, "and tell me who's good and who's not?"
"Sure," I said. "That's my business."
"Well, baseball is my business," said Seaver.
And politics used to be the business of the Democratic Party. But now their business is waffling, whining and explaining their "bad luck."
Can't anyone here play this game?
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RICHARD REEVES is the author of 12 books, including President Nixon: Alone in the White House. He has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, Esquire and dozens of other publications. E-mail him at rr@richardreeves.com. |
