Wednesday’s political round-up

December 27, 2006

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* John Edwards confirmed to the New York Times yesterday what’s been largely known for a while: he’s going to launch another presidential campaign this week. According to the Times, Edwards will announce tomorrow and will be the third Dem to officially throw his hat into the ring, joining Tom Vilsack and Dennis Kucinich.

* A week after Tom DeLay announced his belief that Hillary Clinton will be elected the next president, the former House Majority Leader responded yesterday to a question about who the GOP should nominate. Though DeLay wouldn’t mention any names, he offered his guidelines for victory: “If we nominate a Republican who is willing to stand up and fight for conservative principles we can win.” Yeah, that ought to narrow the list down a bit.

* Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) was elected after two successful terms as governor of Indiana, and rumor has it, he’s eyeing his old job. Incumbent Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is unpopular, considered very vulnerable in 2008, and is yet to announce whether he’ll seek re-election. Bayh, should he decide to run for governor, would probably be considered the favorite (and would be in a position to name his own replacement).

* Despite his best efforts, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has not yet made much of a splash in the 2008 presidential race, but the Delaware senator hopes to use his position as the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to raise his profile and impress voters. Step one: he will strongly oppose the administration’s apparent desire to send tens of thousands of additional troops to Iraq.

* And on Capitol Hill, Nancy Pelosi and other House Dem leaders are making it quite clear that, regardless of how the GOP majority treated the minority over the last 12 years, Dems will take the high road and bring a more reasonable governing style back to Congress. As the NYT noted today, Pelosi gave Dennis Hastert the use of prime office space in the Capitol out of respect for his position; she reached out to House Minority Leader John Boehner to develop a task force to explore independent enforcement of ethics rules; and the Dem leadership issued a statement of principles that calls for regular consultation between the Democratic and Republican leaders on the schedule and operations of the House and declares that the heads of House committees should do the same.

I applaud Pelosi’s desire to take the high road in principle, but I hope she doesn’t go to such extremes that the Republicans think she’s some kind of pushover.

Being without morals or scruples, they have been known to take advantage of anyone whom they perceive to be less rigid than they are.

I think Pelosi is a very tough lady and I’m not really worried, just saying that when you feed the lions you have to make sure you get all your fingers back.

  • I love the fact the Democrats are going to take the “high road” in Congress. Can you imagine the reaction to the morons complaining about being treated decently? And then they enforce the idea of “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage” and you have the Republicans complaining about the “family-unfriendly” Congress, making them look even more like the halfwits they are.

    Messing with halfwits in a way that makes them look even more stupid if they fight it. I love doing that myself with righties.

    The next thing is for the Dems to maintain the policy of “I don’t have intellectual fights with unarmed opponents – it’s just not fair.”

  • My walk to work in the morning takes me right past DC GOP headquarters. There’s a bus stop and bus shelter right in front. Metro sells advertising – big posters that go on the sides of the bus shelters. Well, the bus stop/shelter right in front of DC GOP headquarters has a huge poster of Nancy Pelosi with the message “Congratulations Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi”.

    I haven’t seen that poster on any other bus stop shelters (not that I’ve gone out of my way to look), but it’s right there on the one in front of the DC GOP headquarters. Hee.

  • Thought #1: I second Curmudgeon’s thoughts, and add that when comes to specific legislation that Pelosi and the Democrats should play tough.

    Thought #2: Unfortunately for John Edwards, Barack Obama–with the aid of the news media–has sucked most of the charisma out of the room. I wish he well, if Al Gore doesn’t run.

    Thought #3: If Evan Bayh returns to the governorship of Indiana, he will either show a disgust for Washington, DC or a strong lust to become president. Will it be lust or disgust (deal or no deal)?

  • Nice to know that John Edwards is running. That ups our chances in 2008 right there.

    Pelosi should make it clear the Democrats will play by the rules not to be nice to the Republican’ts but because:

    1) They are rules (something the Republican’ts ignore), and

    2) There will be less opportunities for corruption if we do.

  • I liked Edwards’ Hardball College tour appearance. When tweetybird was asking ridiculous questions, Edwards said, “Aren’t the students supposed to be asking questions?” Chris got offended & called him “snippy”. Then a student asked a question and Edwards said, “Great question!”

    Nice to watch Misinformer of the Year 2005 (medamatters.org) get red in the face.

  • I just hope that Pelosi picks an issue or two that are important to Republicans and will largely fly under the radar, and then sticks the same knife in their gut that they stuck in ours over the past 12 years…just to show them how it feels.

  • Hate to be a harda$$ but the only way to get the rethugs to understand that they were jacka$$es is to make them take their own medicine. Otherwise they will just fight any future reforms that might protect against their abuses of power should they ever get that power again.

    These guys never learn lessons, if we don’t make them pay, they’ll just think they were playing fair but that the Dems don’t understand the game.

  • If there were any traditional Republicans left, I’d go with Pelosi. Considering realities, however, I hope she’s sharpening her long knives. Doesn’t mean she can’t wear a nice grandmotherly smile while shoving them in, but there’s no one in today’s GOP worthy of our respect. For one thing, they’ve all played the race card; for another, they’ve all supported Bush’s illegal and immoral quagmire of death; for yet another, they’ve bankrupted the next generation through the war and the biggest theft since the days of the robber barons (who did, at least, provide us with railroads and steel mill and libraries).

    Come to think of it, following Harry Truman’s wisdom (“I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.”), maybe if we just play by the rules they’ll think they’ve been screwed.

  • “…maybe if we just play by the rules they’ll think they’ve been screwed.” – Ed Stephan

    That’s all I ask is for Republican’ts to die of apoplexy from having to actually follow the rules.

  • Somehow I don’t think anyone will think Pelosi is a pushover. Women who are the first to make it to the top are generally tougher than nails.

    I support Edwards for president, unless Gore runs. And then I will have to think about which one to send my tiny checks of support to. It would be so amazingly good to have multiple really good candidates to select from.

  • Due to his recent passing, there has been a lot of commentary about the kind of Republican Gerald Ford was when it came to working across the aisle. Some have asked whether today’s Republican party would have room for him.

    There’s no question that civility and fairness is better for America, as would be a Republican party that was more like the one of the 50s and 60s than the current model. I think that the best way is for the Democratic Party to operate on a high, civil plane, making the GOP look bad by comparison. We need the American electorate to spank the GOP until they behave, and I think that the way the Democrats behave when in power is the key.

  • Spare us the “Gerald Ford was an amiable, civil goof who’d be nice to have a beer with” crap.

    Gerald Ford was a war criminal who personally traveled to Indonesia with his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, to give the green light to Indonesia invading, and subsequently slaughtering one-third the inhabitants of, East Timor.

    Ford’s Secretary of Defense was somebody named Donald Rumsfeld and his Chief of Staff was Dick Cheney. He was just another in a long line of Republicans who kill for economic reasons yet somehow still sleep better than you’d expect.

    Don’t confuse this Republican capitalist criminal with Chevy Chase.

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