I Know What Ty Webb Would Say

Dr. Beeper: "I thought you'd be the man to beat this year."

Ty Webb: "I guess you'll have to keep on beating yourself."

Sure he was talking about golf, but he might also give that advice to Howard's Family Circus:

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden's main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals. It was Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer.

Joe's party keeps getting rolled by the opposition, so why would the Democrats set themselves up for more abuse when you can run against . . . a store. What's next week, Joe? You gonna go hard against influenza?

Across Iowa this week and across much of the country this month, Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits.

If you don't like Wal-Mart, don't shop there. Don't work there. It it really so tough? These government-as-religion clods love to pretend that mom & pop outfits will go out of business if Target or Best Buy show up, which is classic zero-sum economics and intellectually tantamount to the ramblings of the Flat Earth crowd.

Some Democrats expressed concern about the direction the party was heading, saying it could turn back efforts by such party leaders as former President Bill Clinton to erase the image of the party as anti-business and scare off corporations that might be inclined to make contributions. Still, what is striking about this campaign is the ideological breadth of the Democrats who have joined in, including some who in the past have warned the party against appearing hostile to business interests.

That's just Dean unable to keep anyone's toes near the line, but the all-opposing left is really on the holy crusade against anyone that might actually employ peole.

Today on MPR one of the socialists on the city council was speaking about municipal subsidies, living wage laws, and other fire-brand issues of the collectiveists. He was suggesting all sorts of litmus tests for free enterprise before "outside economic interests that want to come in and make a profit off the community." What a diseased perspective, and how sad is that coming from someone with a hand on the steering wheel on my city?

Challenge for you, Lee: Sometime in your current term, please demonstrate the prosperity and independence you are providing as a mere redistributer of wealth. You cannot pawn off the fiscal responsibilities of the welfare state that you've created on the easliy-harpooned big-box retailer just because you think they have the money. Scratch the surface of the anti-private sector and anti-private-property crowd and you'll find folks crushed by the recent toughening of emminent domain laws.

Among the more glaring hypocricies are the fact that this gang would never force the non-big box businesses to dance to their tune. This isn't just a left/right phenomenon; it's polticians as thugs. Why did Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker rob banks? Becasue that's where the money is.