'Scuse Me While I Fisk This Guy (Myself, that is)

Fisking someone is a lot of fun. You come across something stupid or irritating on the Web (no shortage of that!) and you take it apart. Some bloggers are really good at it, like Mitch Berg and Learned Foot. I've done it, too, although it's not my forte. I would like to get better at it, though. So I've decided to fisk myself.

I looked back through my archives and found this piece, written the day after the 2006 elections. At the time I wrote it, I was pretty pleased with myself. Should I have been? Let's find out.

"Statler and Waldorf mount the stage" begins:

Jim Henson was the comedic genius behind the Muppets, the whimsical puppets
that have charmed and educated audiences for over 40 years. Henson and his crew
created an indelible cast of characters, many of whom are featured in The Muppet
Show, a syndicated television program that initially ran in the United States in
the late 1970s and has been around ever since.

So far so good. As usual, it takes about 100 words to get to the point. Let's find out if we have a point, shall we?

Two characters that fans of the show will remember are Statler and
Waldorf. Statler and Waldorf are presumably wealthy, elderly gentlemen who
sit high above the stage, heckling the performers below. They are amusing
and often insightful, but like most hecklers, they have it easy. They are
quick to criticize but they rarely offer anything that might improve the
show they watch. Interestingly enough, they look a bit like George Soros.

Oops, another 100 or so words and he still hasn't gotten to the point yet. And what's with the non-sequitur about George Soros? Or is that setting something up?

For most of this decade, the Democrats have been playing the part of
Statler and Waldorf. Republicans have essentially dominated the federal
government apparatus, with firm control of the presidency and House of
Representatives and tenuous control of the Senate. That appears to have changed
yesterday. Meanwhile, the Democrats have been on the outside, shouting
imprecations and maintaining a constant drumbeat of complaint through their
allies in the mainstream news media. In this campaign, the Democratic message
has been essentially this:

Republicans suck
Republicans suck
Republicans suck
Democrats are not Republicans
Vote for Democrats because Republicans suck
We told you that Republicans suck, remember?
Had you heard that Republicans suck?
I thought so. Vote Democrat

Hey, look, it's a point! He's saying that the Democrats are hecklers! Bet it took him years to figure that out! Guess he doesn't need to ask Beloit College for a refund after all!

But there's more. Inevitably, there's more.

The message seems to have worked. Democrats defeated enough Republicans to take control of the House and it appears possible that they may ultimately control the Senate, although we won’t know that for up to a month because of a recount in the Virginia race. The margins of control will be narrow, but the Democrats will be in control.

And indeed they were. The Virginia recount never materialized and Jim Webb took the seat without incident, flipping control to the lovely and talented Harry Reid.

Now if you know anything about these sorts of posts, there's probably a prediction coming. Let's see if the blogger had any moxie on the ball.

So what does that mean? It means a few things, not all of which are
bad:

First, the Democrats will set the national agenda. Some priorities of
theirs will likely pass quickly, including an increase in the minimum wage.
While raising the minimum wage is a foolish idea for a number of reasons, it
will happen. Fighting the war will become much more difficult, as the Democrats
will be able to put significant roadblocks in front of the President, especially
since they will control the purse. Finally, conservatives can probably kiss
their hopes of having a truly conservative Supreme Court goodbye. Bush could
nominate the most luminous conservative he could find, and he wouldn’t be able
to get that individual past Pat Leahy and Dick Durbin. If John Paul Stevens or
Ruth Bader Ginsburg retire in the next two years, you won’t see anyone from the
Federalist Society replacing them.

Nothing too earth-shattering there. The Democrats have set the agenda but they haven't been effective in moving their agenda at all. They did get the minimum wage passed, but despite repeated efforts they haven't come close to ending the war. In fact, the war is arguably more popular now than it was in November 2006. And the Democrats are less popular, if public opinion polls mean anything, and they must, because we are reminded about Bush's approval numbers on nearly a daily basis. Approval numbers for Congress? We don't speak about that.

As for the courts, who knows? It appears that there are no vacancies on the federal bench, because we never hear a word about it. And John Paul Stevens continues to be rolled in to Court hearings on casters.

But the blogger is not done, he's got more soothsayin' a comin'. Behold!

Second, because the Democrats will be setting the agenda, their agenda
setting will start to attract some scrutiny. They’ll have to explain why they
want to raise the minimum wage, or hurt the president’s ability to wage the war.
They’ll have to explain why they need to block qualified judges. They’ll need to
explain why, darn the luck, Americans can’t have the “middle class tax cut” that
so many of these freshly minted Congresscritters claimed they would provide.
They’ll also need to explain why the tax increases they have in mind for the
“top 1%” of income earners seem to be affecting well over 50% of the
population.

Scrutiny? Not really. The minimum wage increase has come without any real discussion at all. Generally the Democrats haven't had to explain their perfidy except to their restive moonbat base, who want even more perfidy than Harry and Nancy have been able to muster. They have been able to get by with scuttling the FISA reforms, despite largely unheard howls of protest from the starboard side. And if anyone has asked this guy about the middle class tax cut he promised, I'm not aware of it. Although I think it's still a darned good question, no?

Now at the state level, the DFL seems to be getting some scrutiny after they passed $6.6 billion of tax increases. But it hasn't seemed to stop them yet.

The blogger wasn't done making predictions, though. Incoming!

Finally, being in opposition will allow the Republicans to climb into the
theater box where Statler and Waldorf usually sit. There are smart, telegenic
leaders in the Republican party who will be able to offer the sorts of pithy
soundbites that play well on the news. George Bush will actually be free to
swing from the heels now. Open conflict tends to clarify matters. The voters
have ordered up open conflict; soon they will have a choice to make. It’s quite
possible they’ll order up some more in 2008, by the way.

So, who exactly are those "smart, telegenic leaders" that the blogger said were forthcoming? Haven't seen too many of them. The face of the party in 2008 turns out to be John McCain. Not who the blogger had in mind, presumably. Bush has swung from the heels and has generally been successful politically. Not so much as the casual observer would know, of course, but he's mostly gotten his way even though he is very much a lame duck. And there's conflict aplenty in 2008. Oddly, most of it seems to be an intramural Democratic affair, though.

Time for the big conclusion!

2008 just got a heck of a lot more interesting. Have the Democrats turned the
tide? Or is this, to use a historical analogy, the Battle of the Bulge? We’ll
find out soon.

Not soon enough, though.

So, how did the blogger do? The floor is open.