By stating "I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan," The Man Who Will Be King is telling the opposition exactly what to demand.

This is the Democratic voters' concept of a shrewd negotiator.

Obama is shrewd, but the negotiation is with the Democratic base, not the Republicans and not the oil companies.

Obama is compromising voters, not issues. And most are more than happy to be compromised.

For nearly eight years, exasperated Democratic voters have repeatedly asked why their "leadership" was either (a.) spineless, (b.) complicit, or (c.) spineless and complicit.

It's safe to say that particular "mystery" is revealed in the glorious exaltation of Compromise that is suddenly all the rage among the Savage Mule rank & file.

That's why our criminal president will never have to pay for his crimes in any way, shape or form.

Why would Obama support "limited" offshore drilling? Probably for the same reason he supported telecom amnesty, the FISA bill, the death penalty for crimes other than homicide, Bush's faith-based charities, and the scaling back of reproductive rights for women.

It's really quite simple. Obama's a whore.

Succinctly stated, Peter. Minor point of disagreement: I think of Obama as more of a benevolent pimp (as opposed to McCain as the misogynistic bitch-slappin' pimp.)

It's the Democratic Faithful who are whores. The proverbial hooker with a heart of gold. They're gonna sell that poon to any politician whose name ends in (D). Gonna bend over and move it real good, take that "$1,000 energy rebate" and shut the hell up.

Afterward, when the beaches, birds, fish & mammals are choked with petroleum from rigs unmoored by the hurricane no one could have predicted or the tanker that ooopsie-daisies a load because the captain is pukin' whiskey and blood below deck, Democratic voters will assume zero responsibility for the catastrophe. Outrage will fill the air. But not remorse, nor even a shard of regret for their own culpability.

There is no betrayal - not one single betrayal - the vast majority of Democratic voters will refuse to rationalize, justify and, ultimately, praise.

"But, hey, McCain's worse." It's the Magic Wand of Pragmatism.

* * * * *

This nation truly deserves its fate.

It's only bad when the government of China does it.

Or Burmese generals.

Or Republicans.

No one who continues to identify themselves as a Democrat or Republican has any business even uttering the word "freedom" or lecturing the rest of the nation about Constitutional rights.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

To those of you so eagerly anticipating your collective moment of glory in Denver, enjoy your magisterial coronation. Don't let the fact that your brothers and sisters are caged like petty criminals distract you from the tribal celebration.

This is Fascism, my friends. And there is no justification for it. None.

When you wave your little flags and proudly don your little donkey pins, whatever you do, don't listen to that faint, desperate voice buried deep within your conscience; the one that says "This is wrong." There will be plenty of time for that later.

Democrats have proven time and again that they have a single strategy to prevail: by default.

Anything which deviates from The Default Strategy is - as Nancy Pelosi says with neither conscience nor consequence - off the table.

There is a reason for this, and it doesn't involve Karl Rove or FOX News. It's because gutless Democrats are outnumbered only by corrupt Democrats.

Anyone who seriously expects a government of millionaires to serve the interests of the public - or even subscribe to the extinct concept of "public" - is living in a fantasy world. Especially at this painfully late date.

Unless one happens to be a Wall Street huckster agitating for immediate gratification (redundant, I know), Democrats do not give a damn what the moronic electorate wants, believes or expects.

Here's an idea for the compulsive masturbaters in the business of proscribing winning strategies for the DNC: The next time you start a book, essay or conversation with the words HOW DEMOCRATS CAN, just stop right there and, for God's sake, spare us all from this malignant charade. Instead, start off with WHY DEMOCRATS WON'T and then follow the kickoff to its logical end. If you don't end at oligarchy or class war, see a neurologist.

That's a rhetorical question.

Hope & Optimism are the products of courage, not the cheap 2-for-1 substitutes hawked by the elite and habitually consumed by ravenous voters to sustain their petrified civic identities.

Don't have a choice! is a common refrain. Those who understand the extent of the systemic corruption throughout government do, in fact, have a choice, albeit one they refuse to acknowledge: Continue supporting this rotten-to-the-core system, or come to terms with the fact that your frightened little self-congratulatory tribes and anachronistic beliefs are more precious than anything else on the freakin' planet.

Democrats are content to begrudgingly acknowledge the game is rigged while simultaneously shaming everyone who refuses to play. But the cold truth is that those who cling to the don't have a choice mantra will never have a choice.

That's why and how this whole charade works, and it is very much by design.

It takes two to tango. Short-term convenience is the stuff of longterm problems. The tragic truth is that you'll never remake your party into anything unless you stop empowering it right now. The answer to why your party doesn't represent you is because it doesn't have to - and you are the reason why.