Democrats can totally suck, too.

It's a difficult time to be a constituent, isn't it? Social Security, tax cuts, veterans' benefits, CAFTA, ANWR, Terri Schaivo, Roe v Wade, health care, prescription drug costs..... It seems as though that ding-dang Republican majority just won't pay any attention to what voters actually support.

At least I'm not in Pennsylvania, where the minority Democrats seem to have taken the DLC's mantra to heart-- start acting more like Republicans!

First, the unsurprising GOP tactics: Public outrage over a hefty pay raise Pennsylvania lawmakers voted themselves a month ago — in the dead of night — has nagged them throughout their summer vacation and shows no signs of going away.

Not only did legislators increase their salaries 16 percent to 34 percent to at least $81,050 — more than any state except California — they crafted the package in secret without debate or public scrutiny, then left town.

Even more galling to Pennsylvanians, lawmakers found a way around a constitutional provision barring them from collecting any salary increase during the term in which it is approved. The pay raise bill — based on the authority of a court ruling nearly two decades old — lets lawmakers start collecting the raises 16 months early.

In spite of the fact that Dems are in the minority in both houses, they managed to do something both despicable and naive:

In a show of party discipline, the Democratic leader in the Republican-controlled House ousted from committee posts more than a dozen Democrats who voted against the bill. In their place, he put only those who voted for it, entitling them to extra leadership pay.

Any Democrat who didn't see this as not only ethically proper but a massive election-year cudgel has to be on crack. Which would explain the need for a raise. I mean, I haven't even read Machiavelli, but wouldn't the obviously unprincipled response be to protest the raise, but let is pass anyway? You get your money and you get to beat up your opponents!