It was right about the start of the Iraqi invasion, the majority of French citizens polled favored an American defeat at the hands of Saddam's Iraq and my wife and I were on our way out of town to visit my folks in the country. Traffic was bad, as usual, when the car in front of us jerked out of the lane and into a parking space adjacent to the sidewalk, only to jump right back into the lane again a moment later. I was just about to make a vulgar comment to my wife concerning the driver's technique when I noticed that there was a woman with a clipboard standing near the before mentioned parking space and a French flag spread on the blacktop.

It didn't take long even for me to understand that a "poll" was in progress. My wife looked over at me and said, "Go ahead, you'll feel better." If it had been the French President I probably would have. But instead I grated my teeth on our way past and I noticed the woman make a mark on her clipboard. We were counted among those who "approved" of France- though nothing could be further from the truth.

I then explained to my love why I didn't run over the French banner.

About three weeks are so before I had heard on the radio about the chaos in what we loosely refer to a "country" in Africa. I don't remember which one. Some local nationalists were on a murdering rampage, killing and enslaving basically anyone they wanted to. European and American citizens were scrambling to escape and UN was living up to it's reputation as a worthless club of bored politicians. The news on the radio reported that French Special Forces had rescued a large group of people from the path of the murderous locals, among them many American women and children.

This surprised me. Mostly because I generally would compare the 'French Special Forces' with the Special Olympics rather than say the Navy Seals or Green Berets. That and if it I had to guess who would be saving women and children from murderous dictators I would automatically go for an American unit like the 82nd, not a collection of Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys.

But there it was. French Special Forces protecting vulnerable American women and children (note that this is before revelations about French Nationals under the UN banner running a sex slave operation in Africa which confirmed my "who needs the French" attitude) and only a stray radio news report to mark the occasion (I don't remember it being on the TV).

So when it came time to express my frustration and anger at the French, honor forbid me to mistreat the Blue White and Red. Because no matter what the polls of French opinions said, or what my opinion of French policy was, those men that risked their lives to protect my people deserved better than for me to disrespect their colors.

Now let's fast forward a bit to the 2006 mid term elections. The Dems have spent months rattling on about the war and the Main Scream Media have been doing their part to ensure the Reps have the most negative light possible. And amongst this a Republican Representative is caught pursuing sex with a congressional page.

Bad Representative. No cookie.

The Dems incorporate this into their overall election strategy -despite Dem Congressmen (note the plural) pursuing congressional pages in years past- and win control of the House and (barely) the Senate. Of course both Dems and Main Scream Media hail this as a "mandate" to end the war and immediately begin to pursue legislation for universal healthcare.

But for the careful observer a few things soon become obvious:

1. The MSM and the Democratic party leadership care nothing about the sexual pursuit of congressional pages by congressmen or they would have cleaned their own house of page pursuers many years ago.

2. The Democrats barely took control of congress. A few votes the other way and the Senate would have stayed safely Republican (if only barely) so the idea of a "mandate" for Democratic policy of anything is wishful thinking at best.

3. The Democratic leadership, despite it's ranting to the contrary, are not interested in seeing the war come to a close because it is an excellent election issue for them. With their MSM confederates they are able to form the question as "for war" or "against war" rather than the more accurate "fight overseas" or "fight at home". Never underestimate the power to write the question.

4. The Democratic party leadership honestly believes that the average American wants the US out of Iraq at any cost and that is the reason for their electoral success in 2006. They believe this because that's what they wanted the average American to believe after being bombarded by their MSM confederates for months running up to the election.

5. The Democratic party leadership has all but forgotten about the congressional page issue because it is of no more use to them. They, by and large, do not believe that homosexuality or adult and teen sex to be "bad". So it doesn't really hit their radar that without this issue in 2008 they will not do a strongly as they did in 2006.

Which is what happened with the lady and her clipboard. She assumed I approved of France and disapproved of the liberation of Iraq because I wouldn't drive over a French banner. She was wrong, and so are those that believe the Democrats will sweep the 2008 election just because the MSM says so.