LIMBAUGH COMMENTARY: SAVING THE CRUMBS

You know this is going to be one heck of a campaign season when the Democratic front-runner is being forced to prove he's more compassionate than the Republican one.

Try as he undoubtedly did, Al Gore couldn't quite make it through his campaign announcement without revealing his defensiveness about George W. Bush's presumptuous appropriation of the compassion theme. Bush has definitely gotten Gore's goat, and maybe even his family farm -- tobacco and all. It's a beautiful thing.

Gore took an unmistakable shot at Bush when he said, "I want to do it the right way, not be letting people fend for themselves or hoping for crumbs of compassion, but by giving people the skills and knowledge to succeed in their own right in the next century."

I am no longer upset with Bush for coining the phrase "compassionate conservatism," because I don't view it as an apology for conservatism proper. I just think Bush has devised a way to beat Clintonian liberals at their own game of political marketing.

Part of Clinton and Gore's unscrupulous genius has been to steal Republican ideas, such as balancing the budget and welfare reform, leaving Republicans not only empty handed but also on the defensive.

How dare Clinton-Gore veto welfare reform twice, only reluctantly pass it the third time because it was so close to the election and then claim credit as if they had originated the idea. But what's worse is that they got away with it.

If they can steal the budget and welfare issues, then why can't Republican Bush steal compassion? If you don't know, I'll tell you why: because compassion is liberalism's Holy Grail.

It's not enough that liberals have a monopoly on compassion and that conservatives are bereft of it. Conservatives are not just unfeeling, they are affirmatively mean-spirited, wanting to deprive children of their school lunches and the elderly of their Medicare benefits.

Well, I am just about tired of it. How incredibly shallow of them to presume to know what motivates our ideology. It must never occur to them that it is an abiding love for our fellow human beings and our heartfelt desire that they be allowed to shine in the light of political freedom.

Clinton and Gore started this fight, or at least, exacerbated it. As they have lived by the polls, so they must die by the polls. They have thrived through nearly two terms on unbridled political exploitation. They have pitted class against class, race against race, gender against gender and everyone against evil Republicans.

After the 2000 election, if Republicans indeed are victorious, maybe they can finally demonstrate their bona fides to liberal Democrats by throwing them crumbs of compassion.

~David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.