Big difference between civility and betrayal.

DU Oldsters might remember those old Timex commercials where John Cameron Swazey strapped a Timex to an outboard motor, then announced a few seconds later, "It takes a licking but keeps on ticking." I`ve been in a Swazey state of mind for a long time, a huge charge of optimism just a-bubbling under the surface.

When my old Subaru had more holes than a boat load of Swiss cheese, I grabbed grocery bags, made patterns, got some sheet metal at the landfill, bartered a rivet gun and started patching. "Old Red" was going to keep on keeping on even if she wasn`t pretty when I finished. When a serious illness struck at the same time my woodpile dwindled, I grabbed my bow saw, went over the embankment and leveled a 24-foot tree. Everything went well until the last couple of minutes when the tree hitched down on my saw. I tried every imaginable contortion, ripped half the hem off my skirt, but by morning my kids were warm. It was a Timex moment but things have changed.

If I was the type to zig-zag around warning that the sky is falling, I wouldn`t be so concerned about my dimming optimism. I`m not. I`m a tough old bird who is beginning to think something is out of kilter. It`s in the wind, the rain, even in the cornfields. It`s like something swooped down during the night and altered things: our institutions, our laws, our values. It destroyed perfectly decent millworkers and took the van away from the Meals On Wheels guy. It made us believe that the purchase of a flag pin earned a wartime tax cut. It made our leaders view a world map as though it was a menu for a feast of kings....What`ll you have? I`ll take Iraq....

To the dwindling optimism....Color me silly, but I`m about done with the Democrat`s "big tent" idea. Our tent got so crowded with corporations and consultants that the regular folks had to stand outside. The collection plate got passed around but the flow of alternative ideas got lobbed off and rendered useless. Too liberal. Too dovish. Too....alternative. We`ve reduced our message to consultant-accepted backdrops and flag-draped photo ops. Can`t worry about the message when your focus is on the props.

Consider this scenario....Truck runs out of gas in the neighborhood. First person hires a manager to make a public statement about a committee which is meeting to decide what to do about the truck. An 800 number is posted with automated response telling callers how to leave a message about resolving the truck problem. Press 1 for calling a tow truck. Press 2 for issuing parking violation. Press 3 for mandatory environmental impact statement. Results will be aired in 30 days, so don`t come to headquarters in person. We`re having an invite-only luncheon. Second person, an old fashioned Democrat, walks toward the truck with a gas can and a funnel. It`s that simple. We dispense with the BS. Get back to basics. Stop making excuses and vote out any "leaders" who refuse to lead. Democrats who are aiding and abetting Bush`s horror in Iraq should get pink slips. Democrats who waste precious time with flag-burning speeches and chatter about Bush`s "charisma" don`t deserve our consideration for the `08 nomination. There`s a big difference between civility and betrayal. We have to stand up and tell these people what we`re going to do about the truck.