Conservative journalist Robert Stacy McCain condemned corruption in the Democratic Party and stressed importance of the coming November election in a Tufts Republicans event last night.
"This year is [the Democratic Party's] best chance to take back the House," he said. "If they don't take it back soon, they're not going to take it back."
McCain, an assistant national editor with the Washington Times, said that this election will be "one of the most exciting campaigns."
"You'll go to bed on Nov. 7 and no one will know who's going to control Congress and you'll wake up on Nov. 8 and they still won't know who's going to control Congress," he said.
According to McCain, several issues may tip the election in Democrats' favor, including the war in Iraq. The Republican Party is facing discontent, however, with stalled reforms for social security, education and healthcare, he said.
Still, he feels that the Democrats are "living in the past" because of their obsession with the war.
"The left really wanted to restage the 1968 war protests," he said.
McCain, formerly a Democrat who now votes Republican, voiced other criticisms about the Democratic Party. His main focus: what he claims as extensive corruption that he claims "goes back to the founding of the [party], particularly the involvement of Aaron Burr."
Aaron Burr was tried in 1807 under charges of treason for trying to start a new nation in the Southwest United States, of which he was to be the head. He had previously served as the third Vice President under Thomas Jefferson as a major formative member of the so-called Democratic-Republican Party.
McCain elaborates further on corruption themes in a book "Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party," that he co-wrote with Lynn Vincent, a Features editor at World Magazine.
"Donkey Cons," released in April, is a factual catalogue of offenses that contradicts the noble image Democrats try to uphold, McCain said.
"People think [it] is going to be a snark-fest, filled with ideological attacks, but it is just a catalogued history of the...party," he said.
His analysis of the Democratic Party's degeneration begins with Aaron Burr but also includes discussion of Tammany Hall and personalities such as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Senator Hillary Clinton (N.Y).
Voters turn a blind eye to Democratic corruption because Democrats claim to represent "the little guy," being any disadvantaged group, ranging from minorities to homosexuals to women.
Nevertheless, "if the [the Democrats] get back in power, you are going to see some scandals, because they are hungry for it," he said.
McCain told the Daily that "to be a conservative requires you to have a stake in the game; you have to pay taxes; your kids have to go to school. Once you start paying taxes, you'll say 'give me back my money and cut my taxes.'"
He also offered predictions about the 2008 presidential election.
"On the Democratic side, it's going to come down to Hilary versus the 'anybody-but-Hilary' candidate and on the republic side it's going to be [John] McCain (R-Ariz.) and the 'anybody-but-McCain' candidate," he said. "The money is on the 'anybody-but' candidates."
"I wouldn't underestimate Hilary, but you can go ahead and underestimate McCain. He alienated too many conservatives," he continued.
Tufts Republicans President Jordan Greene said, "I'm very happy with the speaker. He did a great job."
The group will host an all day conference with five speakers on Oct. 28.
