In the meantime, things don’t look that bad

March 7, 2006

The news item of the day seems to be this front-page piece in the WaPo on all the problems congressional Dems are having in “seizing the opportunity” presented by a weakened Republican majority. To be sure, going through the piece, it sounds like the Dems have been given the chance of a generation — and they’re blowing it.

News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats’ hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.

Democratic leaders had set a goal of issuing their legislative manifesto by November 2005 to give voters a full year to digest their proposals. But some Democrats protested that the release date was too early, so they put it off until January. The new date slipped twice again, and now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) says the document will be unveiled in “a matter of weeks.”

Some Democrats fear that the hesitant handling is symbolic of larger problems facing the party in trying to seize control of the House and Senate after more than a decade of almost unbroken minority status. Lawmakers and strategists have complained about erratic or uncertain leadership and repeated delays in resolving important issues.

Pretty discouraging, right? The article points to Dems being almost comically unorganized. Some want a long Contract-with-America like platform, some want a short one, some see no need for one at all. Some want to present a legislative agenda immediately, some want to wait until we’re closer to the election, and some just want to make 2006 a referendum on GOP leadership (or lack thereof). Some like the Dems’ new motto (“Together, America can do better”), some hate it, and some don’t see the need for a motto at all. Some want to spend 2006 attacking Bush, some want to focus on Congress, some want both, and some want neither. The old Will Rogers joke wasn’t mentioned in the Post article, but it might as well have been the lede.

In the meantime, despite all the hand-wringing and back-fighting among the Dems, they’re still poised to have a tremendous cycle.

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 28 to March 1, finds the Democrats holding a substantial lead over the Republicans as the party more registered voters currently support in this fall’s elections for Congress. More than half of registered voters (53%) favor the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House in their district; only 39% favor the Republican.

Gallup’s recent trends on this “generic ballot” question — from October 2005 through early February 2006 — found a smaller six- to seven-point lead for the Democrats. However, the current 14-point Democratic lead is similar to a 12-point Democratic lead recorded last August. It is also among the highest seen since the Republicans came into power more than a decade ago. (emphasis added)

Moreover, just a few weeks ago, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed huge advantages for Dems. By a 51% to 35% margin, Americans said they’d prefer to go in the direction outlined by congressional Democrats rather than the direction established by the president. By a 54% to 38% margin, people plan to vote for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate for the House, one of the largest margins favoring the Democrats in two decades. By 51% to 37%, Americans said they trust the Democrats more than the Republicans with the main problems facing the country over the next few years, the first time since spring 1992 that Dems have gained more than 50% support on that question.

Dems are obstructionists; Dems just stand in Bush’s way; Dems have no new ideas of their own, Dems have no agenda — it’s a constant refrain from talking heads and conservative leaders, so it’s hardly surprising to see it on the front page of the Post today. But the article seemed to leave out the pertinent context: for all the Dems’ disarray, voters are looking at the Republicans who control every branch of government, they don’t like what they see, and they’re anxious to make a change.

Am I saying that Dems could win big this year in spite of themselves? Pretty much.

It seems simple to me. If people don’t like what they see from the Repugs, they’ll vote for the Dems. It is a referendum on the GOP — it has to be.

Dems point out the corruption and the incompetence and they should do just fine.

  • Brian is right. Why should the Dems write an agenda so the repugs can hijack it? That’s what Schwartzneger is trying to do in California and it may work. The repugs need to run on their record, and it is a sorry record.

  • Those numbers sound like good news, CB. The Dems do need to keep the ship together, though, and November is still a ways off.

    The morro is good. I think releasing an agenda earlier rather than later is preferable, even if it’s a little unfocused. So long as good points get in there, Dems at large can correct for any leaders’ or strategists’ poor choices for emphasis by picking what they are going to emphasize out of the list, and then the points that are weaker / less hot can fall by the wayside as elections approach. Of course, what ever the Dems put out as an agenda shouldn’t be way all over the place- at the least, it should be amenable to being summed up as a few clear goals.

    I’m optimistic. Let’s make this happen, people!

  • CB, is there any way you can make the font in my comment boxes come up as Old English? I’d like my comments to look a little more gangsta. Just asking.

    And oh yeah- that should have been ‘motto’ in my third sentence in #3, above. *oopers*

  • Those who own the media these days and think that voters will be swayed by empty headlines must be starting to sweat a bit.

    The public is not responding like the zombies Karl Rove has always thought of them as, which leaves him even more clueless and baffled about what do to next.

  • After 9/11, when Bush was posturing and congress was giving away all our rights, I remember thinking that the government was preparing for an unending was, and since it was a war that would never end, we would never get our rights and freedom back. I see more and more that it is all coming true. I grew up to respect and cherish what we had in this country. And I can’t understand how we can let this happen. I came accross this on rawstory today, and the link was broken when I tried it again. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=cb46d45dd5fc3d05, Why are so many good people going blind? Where are the strong leaders we can turn to?

  • I just forgot one thing: pushing the Dem agenda should be sort of a one-two punch with criticizing the GOP / and associating the GOP w/ Bush (and in turn, criticizing his administration).

    Here’s your homework assignment:
    1) Find out who the Republican up for re-election in a district geographically closest to you, and w/ the most chance of losing, is.
    2) Research him or her and find out what the candidate’s political weaknesses are. Especially, identify any of these weaknesses that correspond w/ a political strength of the Dem candidate who will be running opposite.

    If there’s really not anything anecdotal that corrsponds, then think about how to talk about your Dem candidate so his or her strengths are emphasized in comparison to the GOP candidate’s weaknesses.

    3) Build up a steady drumbeat talking about what you’ve learned about the GOP candidate until Nov.- in letters to newspapers, and anywhere else you can get it out. Make sure everyone really knows why the person has to go. If you can, team up w/ some of your friends or organize a group at your school / church etc. w/ the sole purpose of getting the GOP candidate elected out of office.

  • I think the meme is “Republicans have been telling you for 25 years that your government is wasteful, disorganized and dangerous. But it took their being in power to make it true.”

    You shouldn’t elect a party to run your goverment if the core of their philosophy is that government is crap and then be suprised that they have no idea how to use government to benefit the country.

  • We just attended our Local Democratic caucus up here in Washington State and since we were the only couple there from our precinct…. my wife and voted each other in as delegates to the upcoming county democratic caucus…..

    And were going all fired up… with the message that the Dems need to get some street smarts, focus and grit so their candidates won’t self destruct at the first sight of a swiftboat. Helpless wishy washy good intentions don’t cut it anymore, we need to be ready to rumble.

    Bush has gone too far, and each of us needs to do what we can to stop him…even if it means going to deadly political gatherings.

  • No, Democrats cannot win if they’re disorganised & unfocused. Remember, voters were widely disappointed with Bush in 2004 (albeit not as much as now), but couldn’t be motivated to vote for Kerry. Voters need a reason to vote for something, or else they’ll be swayed by warmongering and culture-warring or just stay home. Sorry, blaming the media is pathetic.

    Democrats don’t need a wonky catalog of policies; even if we could agree on them voters wouldn’t care. But Democrats do need a few solid themes. Honesty. Competence. Tolerance. A balanced budget. Healthcare. Fix the mess in Iraq (no need to offer specifics – just make it clear that you’re angry with how things are going, and you’re going to “fix it”).

    Once we offer voters something to vote for (even if in our wonky souls we know these aren’t, properly speaking, policies), we can take advantage of the potential shown in the polls. But we have to offer something.

  • In answer to bonnie’s question, “Why are so many good people going blind?”:

    Our nation after 9/11 was sent spiralling into a deep psychosis. All the dark, ugly impulses that have been part of the overall American character throughout its history — but usually kept under control — were brought to the fore after 9/11, and shamelessly exploited by Bush, Rove, Cheney and their ilk. By the ’04 election many of us had shaken off this psychosis, but not enough (unless you assume Bush cheated his way to victory that year). As the months go by, however, and the GOP crimes and scandals add up, and as more and more people come to their senses and shake off the psychosis, there will be a reckoning.

    Will the reckoning be this fall? It looks good now, but…you never know what malignant rabbits Mehlman and Rove will pull out of their hats.

  • Kali, I love that you and your wife voted yourselves in as delegates because nobody else showed up. That is so slick!! And everybody else in your precinct is so going to be kicking themselves for not going. Have fun out there, and keep the street smack flying!! 🙂

  • Remember Russell Baker’s imperishable lede in some election, perhaps Jack Kennedy–headed for the greatest victory since Dewey beat Truman in 1948.

  • I think the Dem slogan should be: “What kind of country are we?”
    Then list of all of Bush’s failures, lies and corruption (this would have to be infomercial length apparently) and ask Americans if this is kind of country they want to be. Dem proposals to remedy problems could be under the same theme.

  • Curmudgeon- thanks for the support…
    Also, I’d like to take BC’s post #10 to the democratic caucus and read it there .. It sums up for us what needs to be said.

  • In light of everything the Bush administration and its Republican enablers have tried – and often succeeded – to get away with over the past several years, the upcoming races shouldn’t even be close. There’s really no excuse for the Dems not to be absolutely hammering away on the Republicans. Sadly, however, many in the Dem leadership seem to have a noticeable lack of spine and/or cojones. I mean, this is the easiest take since Jefferson stole the Louisiana Purchase from France. It’s a no-brainer.

  • The Democrat Party is the Party Of HOPE. In power they hope for the best and are frequently rewarded with a nice quiet time in office, which they handle very well but for one deficiency: They have no concept of the dangerous World that these United States must lead, whether these United States would or not. So things are permitted to slide and the can gets kicked on down the road, the Democrats in Office assigning the responsibility for dealing with the accumulating stresses and problems to the next man who holds the Office. So Eisenhower extracts the USA from Truman’s Korean War, Nixon extracts the USA from Kennedy’s Viet Nam War, Reagan extracts Carter’s State Department Hostages from the Persian Mullahs’ clutches, and now Bush must save America from the Terrorists who were permitted to bomb and conspire while Clinton allowed Ms. Albright to finance the Nuclear Ambitions on North Korea and the Butcher of Baghdad plotted his revenge. When a major Political Party has a history, dating back to World War II of, of traitors in high places and feckless oafs more concerned with accumulating a massive fortune than their sworn duty to serve and protect, then it takes a tremendous bribe of the Tax-Payers’ money to buy their way back into Office. Sometimes the poor Tax-Payers are just tapped out. Sometimes the Poor Tax-Payers take the time to study the issues and recognize that the Party of Total Government is their enemy.

  • democratic platform:

    POINT !:

    george bush has made a number of really bad decisions about

    national security, war, government spying on americans, public finance, energy conservation, health care, science, etc.,

    POINT 2:

    the republican congress has repeatedly failed to exercise critical judgement or “oversight”

    and have,

    instead,

    rubberstamped each foolish initiative.

    that’s the platform.

    that’s all you need

    just affirm to the american voter that democrats understand what he/she undertstands.

    no more is needed.

  • I’d vote a straight Democratic ticket after reading waumpuscat’s “Vote Republican or Die!” comment. What a load of factually inaccurate horse shit.

    Saying “Republicans got us into this mess” may let the Democrats squeak into majority status. But it’s a huge gamble that depends upon the continuation of a long streak of bad news for Republicans. Democrats must have clear, consistent ideas to solve the country’s problems and they must articulate them often and clearly. Why steer clear of a policy debate because the Republicans might be mean? Armed with substantial proposals, Democrats could find Congressional races stacked even more in their favor. And if the Democrats win big in November (and that’s a big IF), whining about the Republicans and the media isn’t going to cut it. They must come up with solutions sometime.

  • Was the above extract from the proposed Democrat Party Platform a spoof originally copyrighted by THE ONION, or was it the latesr draft of the Convention’s Platform Committee? Either way, it’s laughable. Indeed, it’s farcial. The Democrats are prepared to govern a notional country situated in a world that does not exist. The shallow Marxism that informs their conceptual appreciation of the correlation of forces deployed by the Powers has strained their thought processes, when it is their belief systems that bulge in ugly, contorted shapes. Thin premises deliver slender thoughts and terrible policies.

  • The Middle East seethed with animosity during the Clinton Regime. He assigned the responsibility for punishing the outrages, such as the deadly attack on the USS Cole, to Attorney General Janet Reno (Hillary’s Golem, fabricated of muck and offal) and the Department of Justice. That Cabinet Officer had executed her very own terrorist act, a POGROM directed at a heretical religious sect in Texas. Scores of the deluded believers died in the gas and flames, the ONLY Porgrom in the history of these United States executed by an Officer of these United States. She accomplished nothing against the terrorists, disproving the adage that it takes a terrorist to catch a terrorist. I wonder if she sees in her dreams the great blisters form and burst on the exposed skin of those babies as they died screaming in the flames of the assaulted Branch Davidian Compound in Waco. That is what the Clinton Regime did to learn about terror! Now President BUSH, our GOD-granted leader, is setting aright the disturbed international arrangements he inherited from the feckless lout, who frolicked and postured his way through a dangerous world like the amiable psychopath that he is. We were at war and Mr. Clinton sent lawyers to fight it.

  • Do ya think wampusscat spends all evening at the country club with the likes of Bill Kristol knocking back a dozen scotch and sodas before he drops in to impart his great wisdom with us. Nothing else would explain the gibberish or the delusional thinking.

    What say you wampus — is that the smell of 12 year old Chivas coming from your keyboard.

  • Well, Sir, no lawyers, sent alone into the battle, died struggling on the front lines against the Moslem terrorists during the Clinton Regime. That was Mr, Clinton’s sole “victory” in the struggle against the explosive-saturated war of the Moslem terrorists. The Moslem terrorists made war against these United States, while the clueless President Clinton made his strange “WHOOPEE”! You could look it up; it’s in the public record.

  • From DNC Chairman Dean on the Today Show on 1/26/06:

    One: American jobs that will stay in America, using energy independence to generate those jobs.

    Two: a strong national defense based on telling the truth to our citizens, our soldiers and our allies.

    Three: Honesty and integrity to be restored to government.

    Four: A health care system that works for everybody just like they have in 36 other countries.

    Five: a strong public education system so we can optimism and opportunity back in America.

  • Has the Great Wizard DEAN also promised to enforce the SANCTITY OF THE COSMOS and the PERPETUAL VIRGINITY OF THE FLOWER OF SOUTHERN WOMANHOOD? What a putrid load of old cobblers that half mad old man spouts to relieve his boredom. Will he also make the SUN shine bright in my old Kentucky home?

    How little it takes to excite the slavering, half-educated masses of the Democrat Base! And the Base belongs to Senator Clinton, anyway.

    By the way, how did Senator Clinton vote on the recent PATROIT ACT EXTENTION?

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