Losing It

This is just getting weird...

As elections are coming up in just a week, Democrats should be pretty positive. They look to have a decent shot at taking over either one of the two houses, particularly the Senate. And yet, oddly, a few of them seem to be losing it - particularly among the leadership. Charlie Rangel and John Kerry were the best examples of the day.

Vice President Cheney spoke out against Rangel, who would take over the tax-writing panel if the Dems won, by criticizing how Rangel would act on the committee:

"Charlie has said there's not a single one of the Bush tax cuts he thinks should be extended. And he could achieve that objective simply by not acting. Unless there's an affirmative action by Congress, legislation passed to keep those rates low, those rates are going back up, and he'd have a massive tax increase,"

This seems to be a fair attack, on the issue at hand. But Rangel took this particularly personally:

"He's such a real son of a b****, he just enjoys a confrontation," Rangel said, describing himself to the newspaper as "warm and personable." He told the newspaper Cheney may need to go to "rehab" for "whatever personality deficit he may have suffered."

"When you have those sorts of problems, you're supposed to seek help," Rangel said. "He acknowledged that he has problems with communication."

Does that mean Rangel will be voting to keep the tax cuts? I'm not sure. But John Kerry seems to think that US troops are dumb:

Kerry's bitter words for the administration were sparked by his own comments a day earlier to a group of students during a campaign stop at Pasadena City College for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides.

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said.

I have so much I could say on that, but I think it speaks far better for itself. Sick, sick, sick. (He has also refused to apologize, calling it a "botched joke" and blaming the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.)

Finally, blame both parties for this sad statistic:

An assessment of campaign advertising spending shows that in this campaign season, the political parties have spent about $160 million in negative ads compared to about $17 million on positive image message, a rate of about $1 of nice for every $10 of nasty.

Pathetic. Shame on all politicians.