When my German friend, Irmgard, asked me back in the ’60s what the difference was between Democrats and the Republicans, I answered naively: “The Democrats are for the little guy, and the Republicans are for Big Business.” Here in New York City, neither party gives a damn about us. Our two Democrat senators were too busy sniping at the president to get involved in an illegal transit strike that was crippling the biggest city in the state they allegedly represent. Our Republican governor released a statement Tuesday saying he would not get involved in any negotiations. He’s too busy trying to raise interest in his run for president in 2008. He’s blown an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of real leadership the newly elected Reagan demonstrated in 1981 with the Air Traffic Controllers Strike. Mr. Pataki should have been shouting out the terms of subsection 210 of the state’s Taylor Law.

“No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a strike.

Then he should have enforced the next part of the law:

“In addition, any public employee who violates subdivision one of this section may be subject to removal or other disciplinary action provided by law for misconduct.”

Where was the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer? Gearing up for his run to succeed Mr. Pataki? How I would have loved to hear anyone in authority say, “Get back to work or you’re fired!”

In Staten Island our train service, the Staten Island Rapid Transit, was still operating, as was our ferry service. There is a free connection bus from the Manhattan side of the ferry, which travels to Chambers Street. As I waited for this freebie Tuesday, I asked a woman waiting with me what she thought of the strike. She shrugged and said, “They have to do what they have to do.” What an inane answer, I thought, but so typical in this brainwashed town, which sympathizes with every extortionary gambit the unions throw at it.

I asked her if she even knew what the contract battle was about. The Transport Worker Union’s president, Roger Toussaint, had the nerve to call the strike for the “unborn,” meaning the new hires who would be affected by the proposed contract. The transit workers already have a better contract than many of the poor workers being forced to walk, bike, and carpool to their jobs, shopping, and doctor’s appointments. The woman just raised her eyebrows at my vehemence and rising voice and walked quietly away.

Where were you, Senators Clinton and Schumer? Voting against renewal of the Patriot Act, were you? The same act that prevented the bombing of the Brooklyn Bridge many New Yorkers were forced to walk across because of this reprehensible strike? How many similar plots were uncovered by the Patriot Act in the past four years? Frankly, I don’t need to know the details. Thank goodness, the act has been extended, if only for one month.

In addition to the TWU’s devastating attack on the working class of New York, the continuing tirades against the Bush administration’s war on terror are a source of my increasing frustration with the Democrats who could care less about our security. A former New York Police Department detective sergeant, Bob Weir, reminded us in an essay for the American Thinker what Abraham Lincoln did during the Civil War. Clement Vallandigham was a Democrat congressman from Ohio, who was a bitter critic of Lincoln. He continually lashed out at Lincoln and the Republicans because of what he claimed was the improper handling of the war. Because his criticism was viewed as injurious to the morale of the soldiers, Lincoln ordered him arrested for sedition.

No matter what Vallandigham may have said about Lincoln, I doubt seriously it was as vicious and vile as what President Bush has had to endure from Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Reid and the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. Let’s not forget Bush-bashing Hollywood liberals who still can’t figure out why the box office is slumping badly.

My biggest problem with Mr. Bush is his enduring patience with his critics. Just once, I’d love to hear him say, “We are at war. Get over it.”

During World War II, President Roosevelt ordered Japanese and German Americans to be placed in concentration camps, but that is okay because he was a Democrat. Mr. Bush ordered the wiretapping of phone calls from al Qaeda to cells here in America to prevent more 9/11s and he’s a criminal?

The Democrats’ neglect of our national security is due to bitter partisanship and hatred of Bush. Local Republicans are neglecting our local interests because of spinelessness and self-interest.

Nevertheless I wish them all a merry Christmas and happy Chanukah.