It wasn’t John “Two Americas” Edwards appearing on TV just weeks after the dust had settled on the 2006 elections to announce his intention to run for the Presidency in 2008.

…And it wasn’t media darling Barack Obama’s announcement that he too was entering the Presidential sweepstakes the day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

…Nor was it even Hillary Clinton’s smarmy Internet announcement that she was not only entering the race as well, but doing so to begin “a conversation with the American people”. Oh please. (BTW, look closely and you’ll see that her announcement had obviously been filmed several months prior to broadcast; she’s seen sitting on a couch in front of a window with the trees behind her in full summer splendor!)

No, it wasn’t any of these events that made me realize the 2008 election season had begun in earnest. What was it, you ask? It was the Democrats once again returning to their old reliable playbook and dragging out the race card.

I should have known it when I first saw Edwards making his announcement in front of a group of African-American children in post-Katrina New Orleans – you know, that poster child for everything Democrats accuse those mean and heartless Beltway Republicans of ignoring when it comes to race and race relations.

Then, I began to notice the mainstream dino-media starting their oh-so-predictable echoing of Democratic Party talking points whenever possible: the nun seeking to stop the federal government from razing four low-income housing projects no longer deemed fit for habitation; Obama complaining that President Bush had (gasp!) neglected to mention New Orleans in last week’s State of the Union speech (the horror!); then, to top it off, none other than Mayor Ray “floating schoolbuses” Nagin, complaining that “he doesn’t see evidence of ‘the will to really fix New Orleans’.”

If the Democrats and their cohorts in the media weren’t so predictable about this, it would all be so outrageous and beyond the pale.

Never mind the fact that soon after Edwards made his announcement pledging to work to eradicate the gap between the poor and the well off, he moved into his brand-spanking new $6 million dollar, 28,200 square foot mansion situated on a measly 102-acre estate in Orange County, North Carolina. (Hat tip: Dean at Hugh Hewitt)

And never mind the fact that, as it turns out, there’s plenty of dinero there for New Orleans, it’s just that the city hasn’t completed the proper paperwork to start it flowing. And how do we know that? From this AP article by Michael Kunzelman following Nagin’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (ironically headlined, “Mayor says New Orleans shortchanged”). Forget the headline, or even the picture accompanying it. Instead, look several paragraphs down into the story – right after Nagin’s whining – and we find out what’s really going on:

As of Jan. 18, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had agreed to pay $334 million for infrastructure repairs in New Orleans, but Louisiana had forwarded only $145 million to the city. State officials have said city leaders failed to provide required documentation, which Nagin called cumbersome.

Cumbersome indeed. Nothing like paperwork and the need for – how you say it? – accountability getting in the way of making sure the taxpayers’ money is spent wisely, eh Mr. Mayor? But then again, it’s all the Republicans’ fault, isn’t it?

Look, this is not to say that Republican politicians don’t have their own issues when it comes to credibility and speaking out of both sides of their mouths. I just wish politicians on both sides of the aisle would get serious about the serious issues facing this country, like securing our borders, Social Security reform, and keeping American jobs from going overseas. The Democrats can talk all they want about wanting to move the country in a new direction, but playing the same old and tired race card does them no favors, for it reveals them to not only be partisan and predictable, but hypocritical as well.