When things are going great, a team finds it easy to put aside their differences and get along. When things are falling apart, infighting rules the day.
Dems may be in the minority (for now), but they’re getting along swimmingly.
That’s a formula that the famously fractious Democratic caucus seems to have embraced. Though they have not been this thwarted in their ability to exercise power since the 1920s, and though the conventional wisdom says that they are locked into their minority status at least until the next decennial reapportionment (in 2012), the House Democrats these days are an improbably upbeat bunch.
Indeed, Democrats of all tendencies sound the same optimistic notes again and again. They are enthused that after years of defections to the Republican position on many key votes, the caucus now displays an almost unprecedented unity in its voting. (Congressional Quarterly found that last year’s level of party unity in Democratic voting was the highest since 1960.) They approve of their leaders’ consistent attacks on the Bush administration and DeLay’s banana Republicans. They feel that all wings of the caucus are getting not only a fair hearing by party leaders but also real input into party positions. They even believe that their leaders’ indefatigable fund raising and candidate recruitment have been going so well that they have a shot at retaking the House.
The GOP, meanwhile, is acting like, well, the Democrats of the recent past.
John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge are clearly divided, Dennis Hastert seems to hate John McCain, Donald Rumsfeld pretends like Colin Powell doesn’t exist, John Warner and Duncan Hunter are enduring a public feud, and Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t want anything to do with George W. Bush.
A united party this isn’t.
And, as The Hill reported today, it’s reached the point where “the relationship between two House committee chairmen has become so strained that they have stopped talking to each other and rely on an intermediary to negotiate over corporate tax-reform legislation.”
Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) and Small Business Committee Chairman Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) communicate through Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), a senior member on the Ways and Means Committee, to convey their positions and learn about each other’s views on a set of tax breaks for American corporations that have been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
Thomas has been trying since March to move legislation to reform the foreign sales corporation/extraterritorial income (FSC/ETI) exclusion benefits. His bill would direct up to $40 billion in tax breaks to multinational corporations; Manzullo’s approach would direct more relief to small manufacturers.
Manzullo’s allies said he has two dozen lawmakers sympathetic to his bill; others, however, said he has only 10 solid votes in his camp.
The bill has gone through many iterations, and policy disputes get personal; for months, Thomas and Manzullo have not been on speaking terms. The Californian has admitted to colleagues that when it comes to dealing with Manzullo, he uses “emissaries.”
Manzullo acknowledged that McCrery has conveyed messages to Thomas, most recently during the week before the Memorial Day recess. Two key Ways and Means GOP lawmakers and a senior Republican aide confirmed that McCrery has been a go-between.
I’m completely convinced that the two parties have specific strengths but, unfortunately, each side is currently struggling in the wrong role. Dems are awful in the minority — they don’t know how to attack well, they don’t understand how to pressure the majority, or drive public opinion. The GOP is great at these tasks, but it has no sense of how to actually govern.
I recommend the two sides switch roles after November for everyone’s benefit. The Dems will enjoy the process of making government work again and the GOP will enjoy their traditional role as attack dogs. All will be as it should be.