Words to Live By Since 1993 A SPIFF Publication Vol. 2, No. 45 Where do we start?! Yay! We did it! Two years after the tide of lies swept over America (well, 43% of it), the voters spoke in an epic movement that can only be described as a revolution. In one night, the people cut the term of President Clinton and Bill in half. The numbers are mind-boggling. The Republicans needed 40 seats to gain control of the House of Representatives. We got 52. We needed seven seats to seize the Senate. We got eight. (Nine when you add Richard Shelby of Alabama, but we'll have more on him later.) Republicans are now in control of 30 governors' chairs, where Monday we had 17. All in all it was devastating. Here in Tennessee, we at Spiff watched from the fabled Executive Plaza, towering over beautiful downtown Donelson Tennessee, as our state led the first wave of the revolution. After eight years of higher sales taxes and vanilla wafers, we now own the Governor's Mansion. After Ten years of Owl Gore and political crony Harlan Mathews, we have one Senate seat. And after 18 years of taxes, spending, and Daffuhzits, we have control of two Senate seats. Republicans also captured five of nine seats in the House. You could say it was a pretty good night. It wasn't easy. The ill-fated lib campaigns resorted to the worn-out scare tactics of threatened military base closings, loss of pork, and claiming that those evil Republicans would cut the Social Security checks of widows and cut veterans benefits. They even brought members of the AFL-CIO into the state to do much of their dirty work. Yard signs of the Republican candidates were stolen, slashed, and even burned in some counties. The precision and speed with which the signs vanished has revealed to us the one thing that union members have proven they can do efficiently. Just how bad is all of this for the libs? During the less-than-exciting (ok, it was really pathetic) Bredesen for Governor victory party, a reporter introduced Our Congress (formerly Your Congressman) Bob Clement as the most powerful Democrat in Tennessee. When the dust settled from the electoral massacre, only Bob, Bart Gordon, Harold Ford, (Oh, there's a surprise.) and John Tanner were left standing. (Or should it be standing left?) It is perhaps the strongest statement of how far the libs fell in one night. Stronger than any speech or analysis is the fact that Bob Clement is now the leader of the Democrats in Tennessee. We at Spiff don't know about you, but we couldn't get up and go to the Plaza in the morning if this fact applied to us. On the national level, the loss of basically everything left President Clinton and Bill visibly shaken. Well, actually it only left Bill visibly shaken; President Clinton is no longer visible. Speaking with reporters on the day after, Bill seemed completely lost, leaving us here at Spiff to wonder if he hasn't deluded himself into a corner. The line of logic that we picked up from Bill's comments was this: The voters wanted change in 1992 so they voted for me. In 1994 the voters want more change and they want me to keep going with my programs, so they voted overwhelmingly for the people we changed from in 1992. Huh? We are not sure if we are ready for the changes on Capitol Hill. It will be strange to see Speaker Newt sitting behind Bill at the State of the Union. It's going to take time to adjust from begging for a piece of candy to owning the candy store, but what fun the adjustment period will be. Already, Republicans are talking about slashing the thousands of committee staff jobs, evaluating the procedures of the House, and doing away with the guy who opens the door to the House chamber and letting Congressmen push their own buttons in the elevators. Oh yeah, we're going to enjoy this. Membership Has Its Privileges Some called it salt in a wound. The networks called it insult to injury. We think it's more like common sense. After last week's American Revolution II, the Republicans gained control of the House for the first time in decades, and the Senate for the first time since The President was in office. The voters gave the Republicans the seven seats they needed to take the Senate, with an extra Senator just for fun. The next day, to no one's surprise, Alabama's Sen. Richard Shelby became a Republican. What does this mean? In the Senate, not much. Sen. Shelby has been a conservative for a long time (at least as long as we've been watching him). He was the only Democrat to vote against President Clinton and Bill's Criminal Welfare Bill. He probably won't be voting much differently now that he's with the GOP. It was a political move, and that's....ok. The switch will have an impact on two areas. First, for Richard Shelby and Alabama. The only deal he cut with the Republican leadership is that he will retain his seniority. This means that he may be in line for leadership positions in the Senate, despite the whining of the Northeast Republican Libs. The second impact is on the people of the country in general, especially in the South. If a traditionalist like Sen. Shelby can become a Republican, maybe some of our friends here, who believe what conservatives believe but are afraid that Granddad would roll over in his grave if they voted for a Republican, will consider following Sen. Shelby's example. Hey, nobody expected that we'd take both houses of Congress, either! It's not as though this is a new thing. Richard Shelby is in the good company of many former Democrats who saw the light, and have stood more firmly for our values than some Republicans who have been Republicans since Mumsy and Dod gave them their first Porsche at the Club. Some examples that come to mind are William Bennett, Phil Gramm, Jeane Kirkpatrick, The President, and Rudi Giuliani. (Well, four out of five...) And speaking of Giudas (who is still a little bit Cuomotose): Ppppppppppffffffft! We welcome Sen. Shelby to the Republican Party. Keep up the good work. And on a sad note... With every good moment in life there comes some pain. Just as the elections were building to the earthquake that eventually came, we were informed that Ronald Reagan, The President has Alzheimer's Disease. The news is very hard to take and, if you read WTLB every week, you know just how important The President is to us. Rather than focus on the sadness of the announcement, we choose to note that it once again illustrates the character, grace, and dignity of a man we should each try to emulate. Our prayers are with The President and Mrs. Reagan as they face this trial. On Tuesday, we like to think that we all went out there and won one for the Gipper. Quote of the weak: "We got the message." Bill Clinton Quote of the strong: "Eighteen years was long enough." Senator-elect Bill Frist and 828,984 Tennessee voters Words to Live By is published every week at about this time by Spiff. You can send a fax to us here in the Spiff Executive Plaza, towering over beautiful downtown Donelson, Tennessee at 615-883-0435.