Foie gras Democrats spend lavishly and then rub our noses in it

Democrat John Kerry sets sail in a $7 million yacht built in New Zealand. Republican Scott Brown hits the campaign trail in a GMC pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it.

From Newport, R.I., where Kerry’s “Isabel’’ was berthed before heading to Nantucket, to Rhinebeck, N.Y., where Chelsea Clinton was married in a mansion modeled after Versailles, today’s Democrats are looking more like Louis XVI than Tip O’Neill.

Kick in the First Family’s vacation plans for Martha’s Vineyard, and there’s a real air of Marie Antoinette & Co. retreating to idyllic gardens, while Fox News whips up revolutionary flames. The ethics charges against Representative Charles Rangel of New York are added foie gras.

In 2008, Republican John McCain was the presidential candidate with so many houses, he lost count. Barack Obama was the guy with only one somewhat luxurious home. Today, President Obama presides over a party of perceived privilege, while Republicans accessorize themselves as the party of the people.

Brown accessorized brilliantly during last January’s Senate race in Massachusetts. He’s not mega-rich like Kerry, yet comfortable enough, with five properties and a horse his daughter co-owned for a time with a race track owner. But Brown’s humble pickup truck and barn jacket remain the enduring symbols of his upstart campaign to win the seat held for decades by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Kennedy was a rich and powerful Democrat who kept a connection to the people in a way that Brown and millionaire Sarah Palin understand. But some Democrats just don’t get it, from Governor Deval Patrick’s fancy drapes and Cadillac to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Armani suits and taxpayer-funded military jet.

It isn’t about having a lot of money. It’s about making people feel you are rubbing your money in their faces, while draining their modest assets for sketchy government programs funded by taxes you don’t want to pay.