Armed with a bulging war chest, Bushies began openly crowing that the Cheney-Bush ticket would achieve a 2004 presidential victory rivaling that of Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide triumph over Walter Mondale.  The milestone result would result from a huge financial edge over all Democratic rivals.

How consistent is the Bush right's hypocrisy, and how reluctant the mainstream media has been to expose it while simultaneously looking under every rock to expose any act or statement made by Democrats, especially of the liberal stripe, for critical fodder.  

The stinging irony in this case is that the same team crowing over the prospect of winning a landslide based on a huge financial advantage and virtually unlimited entrée to advertising outlets is the same group that salutes the flag and the glories of America in insisting that it is currently engaged in the urgent process of bringing real democracy to Iraq and, hopefully through the ripple effect, the rest of the Middle East.    

Is this the kind of democracy the Founding Fathers envisioned?  In toeing the corporate line Bushies have imparted a bountiful flow of generosity on the part of the corporate elite and their lobbyists.  In a season wherein Bush had no competition whatsoever in the primaries a record total of $84 million would be raised, constituting serious pocket change.