Alabama Democratic Party

Will Chairman Hubbard and the ALGOP acknowledge that gas was $1.87 when Clinton left office? Will Hubbard and the ALGOP insist that their party platform include that escalating fuel costs incurred on their watch? Will Chairman Hubbard and the ALGOP acknowledge the crash of the US Dollar and the soaring national debt and the US trade deficit were built on the Bush watch? Will they include those sins in their 2008 GOP platform?

Will Chairman Hubbard and ALGOP defend the work of the Governor Bob Riley's 'business' immigration panel or will they back the four bills introduced this week by democrats to fight illegal immigration? Will they call on their business benefactors to go to jail if they hire illegal, undocumented workers? Or will they and their GOP BCA chairman ask Washington to take care of the issue for "We Dare Defend Our Rights" Alabama?

As Howard Dean enters our state will ALGOP defend President Bush's decision to invade Iraq and spend $1.4 trillion of borrowed money from China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, in a pre-emptive war where no weapons of mass destruction have been found? Will the GOP set a timeline for withdrawal of troops (10 months, 10 years or McCain's 100 years) in their party platform in 2008? Will ALGOP explain and defend their party's lack of effort in helping veterans? Will ALGOP demand an accounting in their platform as to why Osama Bin Laden has not been captured, while Karl Rove won't answer questions about alleged tampering in Alabama's Justice System and his and ALGOP targeting of former Gov. Don Siegelman and other democrats per the reporting of CBS, MSNBC, New York Times, Harpers, etc. etc.?

Will ALGOP swear that they knew nothing in advance of Thursday's serving of democrats by US Marshal's of summons at the Alabama Statehouse last Thursday in violation of state law? Will they swear, under oath and under penalty of a felony perjury charge that they never knew, nor tipped off Alabama press of the arrival of US Marshals, nor orchestrated it? Will those same reporters in Alabama swear under oath that ALGOP did not tip them off?

Will ALGOP tell Howard Dean not to include climate change, the 49 million Americans without healthcare coverage in the DNC platform? Will they ask us to not explain why more children are in poverty, more homes are in foreclosure and college students are paying higher interest rates on higher loans due to higher college costs under the Beloved Bush in our DNC platform? We probably will!

Will the old divisions and wedge issues of Lee Atwater, the gambler Ralph Reed, and the ethically challenged Karl Rove be the ALGOP media buzz for the Howard Dean visit? Surely, gays, guns and abortion have been tried in the last six election cycles in Alabama. Those claims don't fill the tank, pay the doctor's bill or help mom in the nursing home.

Alabama Democrats boast more Christian deacons, witnesses and servants than all those that the ALGOP can muster from the Mountain Brook Tennis Club. Why not ask Howard Dean why a white woman and a black man are the last two suitors for the democratic nomination?

People in Alabama are tired of hatred and hypocrisy. They want solutions in the presidential election in 2008. Arrogance and ignorance will never replace hope, heart and the facts. Alabama Democrats heartily welcome DNC Chairman Howard Dean to Alabama on Tuesday. If ALGOP were not buried in the Bush failures of the past 8 years, they could have challenged us to a debate of Alabamians future aspirations. Instead we get a press release that is a diatribe about cultural warfare and insults about our national party chair.

Quite frankly, I hoped for better but expected what we got. Let the election of 2008 begin. My hope is that the people of Alabama are tired of hatred and hype and ready for new leadership in the White House.