(snip)"Within the first month of his second term, this long-sought goal is accomplished by President Bush, with no heavy breathing, much less muscle strain. An epic battle is won with scarcely a casualty. The tort bar is vanquished. There are still more items to address in reducing the toll this vastly wealthy interest group exacts from the wealth-producing sector of the economy, but this is a major step forward.
Keep in mind that class action litigators, with their billions a year appropriated from wealth-producers, are a key element of the Democratic Party financial base. Nobody is going to be moving from Persian-carpeted suites in high rises into the poorhouse in the next few months, but the prospect of multi-billion dollar class action settlements replenishing the ample coffers of predatory law firms is diminished, which means that future "investments" in Democrat contributions will be less generous.
The end came quickly because the old means of obstructionism no longer work very well. Short of a Senate filibuster, the Democrats are unable to prevent legislation attacking obviously self-serving interest groups from passing both chambers of Congress. Who among them is going to stand-up for the right of law firms to earn millions or billions in cash, while sending discount coupons or checks for 33 cents (which need a 37 cent stamp to be applied-for) to the supposed “beneficiaries” of their legal action?
The meme of an obstructionist, special interest-protecting Democratic Party is fully established in the public mind. Democrats are on the defensive against it. The MSM’s ability to bottle-up coverage of embarrassing positions is shattered. Defending the outrageous can be no longer accomplished in private. The old order of battle, in which GOP forces could always be outflanked by a combination of stealth- and publicity-reliant forces of the left is gone, replaced by robust Congressional majorities and battalions of nimble fact-checking bloggers feeding information to the heavy artillery of Fox News Channel, talk radio hosts, and those members of the MSM unwilling to look foolish by studiously ignoring stories which are being talked about at the water coolers, diners, bars, and family get-togethers of America."
(snip)"By reputation, the President was a very avid and skillful poker player when he was an MBA student. One of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W. Bush’s political career.
The political poker game being played by the President and his team did not end with the election of 2004. His father spoke of a “vision thing.” The current President Bush is not so much given to talking as to doing. Make no mistake, the Democrats have made a series of sucker bets, and they are in the process of losing far more than they yet realize."(snip)




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