Recently, the ever-so-exciting Barbra Streisand decided to write a letter to the Democrats in Congress telling them to start being tough and stop letting President Bush walk all over them.

News flash for you, Barb: You don’t have a majority like we do!

In this enlightening piece, entitled, “Nice Guys Finish Last,” she attempts to crush the Bush administration’s stances on issues while firing up the Democrats in Congress. She fails miserably.

Her first mistake was starting the letter off praising Bill Clinton. That’s the way to scare Republicans. When talking up the man who cannot be talked up she said, “Let’s not let them divert the attention from the success of his administration over the past eight years.”

The success of the past eight years? Why do we still have people on welfare? Why is our education system still in shambles? If Clinton was so successful, why does California have rolling blackouts? Why has our military fallen apart, and why is there no President Gore?

I also found it kind of awkward that Streisand talked about Clinton in the same part of the letter in which she referred to Republicans as “ruthless.” She also mentioned “trust.” She said we can not trust Bush, but for some reason, she never mentioned anything about trusting Billy Boy.

As I read on I could not believe what I was reading.

“We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation.”

Intimidation. Can you believe that the same people who once called Bush a moron for a few mumbled words are now saying he is intimidating? Sounds like another liberal cry of defeat to me.

Then she did it; she pulled the old race card. She used the typical race warfare tactics every other liberal has used in the last five months. She said Bush employed “Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.”

Well, first off, were blacks disenfranchised by Bush and his family? No, that is a blatant lie.

What Streisand is referring to is the infamous road blocks and how Jeb Bush really sent out state troopers to pull over black voters. I have some numbers that throws the “conspiracy theory” out the window.

According to a story in the Washington Times, 150 vehicles were stopped at the “road blocks.” Of the 150 vehicles pulled over, 18 warnings were issued. Out of 18, a dozen were issued to white’s.

Does that sound like racial profiling or more like race bating?

When she talks about “Elderly Jews,” she really means those people who could not read the ballot in Palm Beach County but could probably play BINGO 12 cards at a time. Even if the ballot was that hard to read, the Bush family is not to blame. After all, it was a Democrat who designed this piece of work.

Later in the letter Streisand complains of corporate America paying off the Republican Party. She seems to think that all Republicans are corrupt and they cannot simply believe in the principles of capitalism.

She complained about Bush’s support for modifying bankruptcy laws. She said “Republicans recently tightened bankruptcy laws that will create billions of dollars in additional revenue for banks and their corporate partners by weakening protections for working people who fall prey to credit card companies’ dirty tactics.”

I understand some people need to file for bankruptcy because of certain mishaps, but people who spend money they don’t have should have to pay it back. If they don’t want the burden of credit card debt, they shouldn’t have gotten a credit card in the first place. But that is the liberal way of thinking – why make people take responsibility for their own actions?

Barbra also cried about Bush signing an executive order making it possible to hire nonunion workers for government contracts. She said it is to benefit the evil construction companies who donated to his campaign.

In actuality, he is benefiting you, the American taxpayer, by making it possible to hire the lowest bidder. God forbid someone in the huge federal government do something about mismanagement of money.

The lady just kept going and going, blaming a Bush-supporting energy company, Enron, for the energy crisis in the West. The reason there is a crisis in the West is not because of deregulation. It is because there was no cap price at which energy could be bought but there was a cap price at which it was sold.

Team that up with the fact that there are not near enough energy plants in California because of the environmentalist wackos and a Democratic governor, and you get a full-blown energy crisis.

Towards the end of the pathetic letter she referred to Clinton again. “`Great men have great flaws.’ But they can still achieve great things.”

You know, like making peace in the Middle East … oh yeah, he failed at that, too.

She encouraged her fellow Democrats to “reach out to voters against gun violence, to voters who want to protect choice, to voters dedicated to saving the environment.”

Yes, reach out to those of us against gun violence, because that is why gun advocates fight for the constitutional right to bear arms, they like gun violence. Actually, we think it will lower violent crime rates.

When it comes to choice, don’t be fooled into believing this is the party of choice; they do not advocate a woman’s choice to prostitute or a person choice to do drugs. They only want you to have the choice to abort.

As for saving the environment, if that is of her concerns she should perhaps vote Green, not Democrat.

She ended this unforgettable piece of work with a positive note, telling the Democrats to show people they care, and to be strong. She said, “Let’s act now and fight before it’s too late! I know you can do it.”

Well, Democrats, you had a top-notch economy for eight years, peace at the time of the election and massive support for the man who was leaving office, and you still could not get elected. I am willing to bet you won’t do any better next time, especially if your most powerful advocates are people like Barbra Streisand.

Zach Calef is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids.