Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections sent a message to Washington's Democrat rulers and politicians in general, no doubt.

What was the message? Was it received?

An analysis by the Associated Press suggested the crunching defeat of Democrats showed "Obama's political power is limited, independents are kingmakers and incumbents beware." True, but there's more to it.

Did the White House get the message? No.

The White House dismissed the results as merely local politics and not a referendum on Obama's efforts to push through health care legislation and other draconian measures regardless of how many Americans oppose them.

The game-playing continued apace in Washington yesterday as executives of two lobbying organizations endorsed the House bill that will hike taxes and cut Medicare and in the name of health care reform.

Announcing support for the bill were executives of the American Medical Association and the American Association of Retired Persons.

Do not believe that the endorsements represent a majority of the members of either organization.

The AMA announcement came almost on the eve of what the Chicago Tribune called "a critical policy-making meeting of its House of Delegates in Houston that begins Saturday" - the same day the House is set to vote on the bad bill.

At the Houston meeting of AMA delegates, some of the major constituent groups will call for the organization to back away from supporting the House bill. Those groups are the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the American Society of General Surgeons and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - which should carry some weight. They said in a resolution:

"These bills go far beyond what is necessary to fix what is broken with our health care system, and they grant the federal government considerable new powers and authority, which could ultimately amount to a complete government takeover of health care and which is anathema to doctors and patients."

The AMA has said its own internal polling showed doctors closely divided on the Democrat proposals with 20 percent of doctors undecided, the Tribune said, citing a source close to the AMA.

As for the AARP, the left-leaning executives of that outfit played a coy game by saying they had taken no position on the health care legislation until the big announcement yesterday. The AARP's blatant failure and refusal to represent its membership have triggered a revolt. Between July 1 and Aug. 17 alone, about 60,000 members canceled their membership over the executives' position on health care and turned to the conservative American Seniors Association, CBS News reported.

Back to the message sent by the Virginia and New Jersey elections: most Americans are fed up with politics as usual - and most particularly with the ruling Democrats in Washington flat out refusing to listen to the majority that oppose Obamacare.

The message has been sent clearly time and time again. The problem is, it's not being received. The solution: vote the rascals out.

dmckee9613@aol.com