The Republicans thought they had it all figured out. As a sitting senator running for president, Kerry could be placed in a very tough spot if the GOP majority stacked the Senate schedule with controversial bills. If Kerry voted against the measures, they’d tar him as an out-of-touch liberal. If he voted for them, he risked alienating his base.
As Michael Crowley explained in this week’s New Republic:
For weeks, cocky Senate Republicans have been bragging about their plans to use cultural wedge issues like flag-burning to torment John Kerry. Earlier this month, The Washington Post detailed GOP plans for “a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates’ positions on divisive issues.” In Roll Call recently, a GOP aide vowed that, “[w]hen John Kerry comes back, we will make [the Senate] the stage to define him.” Another warned that the Senate will be filled with legislative “bear traps” for the unsuspecting Massachusetts Democrat.
The funny thing is none of this has worked so far. Indeed, it’s largely backfired. For example, when the GOP tried to push a flag desecration measure two weeks ago, purportedly in the name of honoring veterans, Dems used the opportunity to highlight Republican budget cuts to veterans’ health care. It gave Sen. Dick Dubin (D-Ill.) the chance to say, “Giving a veteran a flag is not a substitute for giving our vets the quality health care they were promised.” The Republicans apparently didn’t see that one coming.
In fact, the congressional Republicans’ plan to embarrass Kerry has offered the Dems a valuable opportunity to highlight the failures and embarrassments of the GOP agenda.
Crowley’s story lays it all perfectly.
For all their tough talk, Senate Republicans can barely keep themselves organized, much less bring down the Democratic nominee. Indeed, lately it’s Senate Democrats who have been on the offensive, successfully pressing issues central to Kerry’s campaign. Republicans may have cultural issues, but Democrats have economic ones with more resonance among voters. And, if the going ever does get tough, Kerry can simply skip town. Rather than being a quagmire for Kerry, the Senate could serve as a useful campaign tool.
That last point is important. Kerry has the ultimate trump card for those icebergs the GOP has laid out to sink his campaign: He doesn’t have to show up.
Sure, if Kerry skips enough votes, the Republicans will say that he’s shirking his responsibilities to his constituents. But the truth is, voters have historically given candidates broad discretion about their official responsibilities while they run for president. If he was really needed, Kerry could always swing by to cast a deciding vote, if it came to that. But otherwise, he has almost no incentive to be in the Senate, falling for GOP set-ups, avoiding the trail, and voting on Republican-backed bills that are going to pass anyway.
Besides, Senate Republicans seem terribly confused about the big picture. They think scheduling votes on wedge issues and culture-war controversies will put the pressure on Kerry. Instead it’s reminding everyone just how right wing the GOP agenda has become and presenting the Republicans has having misguided priorities, valuing cultural concerns over, say, jobs and unemployment. The public already trusts us more than them on these issues; the GOP is only making it worse.
Thanks to their issue advantage, Democrats have scored repeated guerrilla victories that play directly into Kerry’s campaign message. Earlier this month, for instance, Republicans tried to pass a White House-backed bill replacing U.S. export subsidies ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization with big new tax breaks for business. But, as the Post recently put it, “The bill has become a difficult testing ground for Republicans against a Democratic onslaught.” GOP leader Bill Frist had to yank the bill after Democrats barraged it with pro-worker amendments and attached an amendment barring federal contractors from outsourcing government jobs abroad (even Frist himself felt compelled to support the amendment). The bill’s future prospects don’t look much brighter, with Democrats prepared to press amendments on corporate tax shelters, transfers of manufacturing plants overseas, and a Labor Department rule limiting worker overtime-pay rights. All of these are useful Kerry issues. “We see Capitol Hill as an asset for sure,” says Kerry’s Senate spokesman, Andy Davis, who says the Senate will be “debating [Kerry’s] priorities.”
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Ultimately, then, the GOP’s gloating about bear traps seems to amount mostly to psychological warfare. As one senior Senate Democratic aide puts it, “If I were them, I’d be less worried about putting Kerry in political positions on the floor than about not embarrassing themselves.” Unfortunately for Republicans, it’s already too late for that.