Sunday, October 22, 2006

I've been getting a lot of email from people about the gambling ban. Much has come from people who ran a few Google searches, found one of my artricles on the ban, and are now pretty honked off about it all. At risk of falling victim to the pundit's fallacy, I think this is going to come back to bite Frist and the GOP. Think about it. Over the last week, some 10-15 million Americans who play online poker logged on to their favorite poker sites, only to get a message telling them that, thanks to the U.S. Congress, they're no longer allowed to play. The GOP just politicized a rather large group of people who heretofore were rather apolitical. And they skew rather wealthy. Of course, we run into the same old problem: Are the Democrats any better? They ought to be. If they were smart, they'd carry this issue into the home stretch, holding it out as an example of a Republican Party that doesn't give a damn about indidual rights, and has nothing but contempt for the "leaves us alone" crowd. And they'd position themselves as an alternative, at least when it comes to matters of "what you do in your own home is your own business." It's a winner. The people who passionately believe in an online gambling ban weren't going to vote for them any way. And in any case, it's a rather small group of people to begin with. Most conservatives are opposed to this bill. The Democrats should send Barney Frank out to do the Sunday morning talk shows.