If the Republican party is so badly damaged that they are now following a radio talk show host then why are Alaskan Democrats still afraid of them?

Do you remember how terrified Dorothy, and the scarecrow, and the tin man, and that big pussy of a lion were of the Wizard of Oz? The guy's amplified voice came out over the loudspeakers and the whole group damn near crapped themselves. It was pathetic.

But after they found out that the Wizard was nothing more then a navigation impaired balloonist with a few tricks up his sleeve, they no longer feared him. With all of his smoke and mirrors taken away he was just an insecure little man.

For the last eight years the Republicans have run the same scam on the American people.

They tapped into our fears, and used threats against our children, and our way of life to scare us into voting for them.

They promised that only THEY could keep us safe and that only THEY knew how to make America great again.

Bullshit.

They lied. And then they spent the last eight years doing so much damage to our country that it will take many, many more years to get America back on track again. And now that there is a different party in power they are acting like spoiled brats and refusing to help with the recovery in the hope that it will fail, and in desperation the American people will forget about the Iraq war, the broken economy, and being spied on by their own country, and actually give them another chance to run the country.

The only word for that is pathetic.

But somehow the idea that the Republicans are a non-threatening joke has not filtered up here to the last frontier. Alaska seems to be caught in a time warp, where the GOP is still the party to beat, and the Democrats are always second best.

Which brings me to our upcoming Mayoral race.

In this next election we have numerous well known and qualified Democrats, at least one famous/infamous independent, and Dan Sullivan the lone Republican. (There are also a couple of "I have no chance but since there is nothing on television what the hell's" to provide the usual comic relief.)

We are led to believe that every other possible Republican candidate stepped aside in deference to the great and awe inspiring Mr. Sullivan. (My take is that there are just not very many Republicans who are feeling confident in their chances of winning this election. Sullivan was the only one who was arrogant or unwitting enough to think he has a chance.)

But hey maybe I am just being unfair to Dan "I totally used to be a kick ass Assemblyman" Sullivan. I mean to be truly honest I don't really know that much about the guy.

So I checked out his site, and the sites of his main opponents Selkregg, Monegan, Honeman, Claman, and Eric Croft.

If you take the time to read through them you find that they are all fairly generic. "We will stop crime, lower taxes, work to ensure a better tomorrow, and invest in the education of our most important resources". (This is the part where they use children to pander to their parents. I hate that part!)

In other words there is really not that much that sets Mr. Sullivan apart from the other poor souls who want to captain this doomed vessel as it hits Recession Reef and starts sinking into the darkness of a broken economy. (Don't you just love metaphors?)

So why are the Democrats so concerned with Dan Sullivan? Beats me.

The only thing that sets him apart from the rest of the crowd is the big red "R" beside his name (which is conspicuously missing from his website by the way.) And the only benefit remaining for a Republican in Alaska is that they can still get tons of money. The symbiotic relationship that exists between the oil companies and the Republicans compels them to throw money at Dan Sullivan like oil field workers throwing fistfuls of dollar bills at the dancers of the Bush Company. (Look it up.)

Now that may have helped Mr. Sullivan in the old days, but that was before Alaskan Republicans started getting indicted by the truckload and the most unbeatable Republican of all, Ted Stevens, got his ass handed to him in the last election while fighting to stay out of PMITA prison.

So then it would appear that the playing field is level, would it not? That is what I thought, right before I read this on Dan Sullivan's site.

As your mayor, I will focus our public safety efforts in high crime areas and we will have a no tolerance policy in these areas. The chief of police in Chicago, which has shown a reduction in crime over the last few years, said the solution was simple: put your cops where the crime is.

I literally had to read that twice. "Put your cops where the crime is". WTF? Could it really be that simple? Can you really fight crime by having cops stand in the place where crime is the most likely to happen? Or is that the most ridiculously simplistic statement ever written on a political website?

If you guessed that last one you are absolutely correct. I checked all of the other candidates sites and NOBODY has anything anywhere near as stupid as this written anywhere.

So it is time for the Democrats in this race to stop worrying about facing off against Sullivan. He is not the problem. The problem is that there are FIFTEEN of you idiots still in this race, and NOBODY can be heard above the noise of the crowd.

The next mayor of Anchorage has to make himself stand out from the throng of participants and earn the right to be blamed for every single problem that is about to be visited upon the city of Anchorage.

And by the way that ain't going to be Dan Sullivan.