The popular definition of insanity is making the same mistake over and over again expecting a different result.

By this definition, the Democratic Party leadership is insane.

Three examples:

High gas prices: The Democrats' answer? A back-to-the-glorious-70s Jimmy Carter freeze in the dark replay with a global warming twist.

Health insurance availability and cost: The Democrats' answer? A back-to-the-90s Hillary Clinton government seizure of the whole health care system.

War in Iraq: The Democrats' plan? Declare defeat on the brink of success to relive the glory days of Vietnam.

Read on and weep for the great Democratic Party, which fought for the rights of working people and won World War II, but today is hell bent on policies that will make gas and food prices even higher; make "free" government-mandated health care even less available and more expensive; and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory abroad inviting the jihad to follow our retreating troops home to your neighborhood.

High gas prices will go higher if the Democrats get their way.

Since Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives in the 2006 election promising to bring down the price of gas (then about $2.30 per gallon), the price has soared to nearly $4.00 per gallon. Why?

"Energy independence" legislation enacted last December increased taxes on energy producers, continued a ban on oil and natural gas production in ANWAR, and on the offshore continental shelf on the East and West Coasts, and portions of the Gulf of Mexico. The most promising U.S. oil-producing areas were put off limits to oil drilling, signaling OPEC that it could charge any price, and we would have to pay it since two-thirds of our daily oil use is now imported.

The legislation also mandated conservation and funded energy alternatives. I agree. The roof of my house is a solar power plant; there's a hybrid car in the garage; the windows are double paned. But conservation alone will not solve the supply shortage which is driving energy prices up. We must increase the supply.

Ronald Reagan understood this. The Carter policies had capped gas prices, taxed oil producers, mandated conservation and "alternatives" – and led to long lines at the gas pump. Reagan cut taxes, opened up drilling, lifted price caps and the lines disappeared, and the price of gas went down. The price of a barrel of oil dropped to $10.

Today's Democrats want to mandate the same failed energy policies of the Jimmy Carter 70s. And to make matters worse, the "energy independence" law bans the U.S. Navy from buying low-sulphur, Canadian oil for "global warming" reasons.

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If you think health care is expensive now – wait until it's free!

High health insurance costs and the growing ranks of the uninsured led Hillary Clinton in 1993 to unsuccessfully propose a government takeover of the whole health care system.

Today, Clinton and Obama both want to require you to have health insurance as defined by the government (even if you don't want it), subsidize the cost to the poor from "the rich" and mandate accessibility rules and service cost caps which will dictate the quality and availability of medical care.

Never mind that medical refugees from every other country with similar mandated government health care plans pour into America every day for medical care. We have the best in the world because it is based on freedom of choice. The Democrats would have us ignore the failures of government health plans everywhere, promising health care security if only we will give up our freedom to choose the health care that's right for us.

The price of retreat in Iraq is defeat.

The worst insanity of the Democrats is their lemming-like drive to relive in Iraq the Vietnam retreat and defeat of America. Better to remember the victory and success of Democratic leadership in World War II.

Of course this war in Iraq has gone on too long, without a well-articulated strategy or definition of victory, and at great expense, particularly in lost lives.

Nonetheless, a cruel dictatorship has been removed; a near civil war in Iraq has been averted with increasing signs of Sunni-Shitte-Kurd cooperation as the national elected government takes its first steps. An al-Qaida insurgency has been defeated, replaced by an Iran-backed insurgency which the Coalition is also suppressing.

The Democratic Party led the country to victory in World War II and went on to transform former enemies Germany and Japan into thriving democracies. U.S. troops are stationed in both countries 63 years later. Despite the truly gruesome scale of the sacrifice involved, the U.S. through victory and occupation made the world a better place. Vietnam changed that Democratic Party into the party of defeat and retreat. And they want to do it again.

It's a shame – and it is insane.