Category: The Senate

Native Dems.

In South Dakota, one of the few victories for Dems last Tuesday, Native Americans made the difference. Reading this reminded me of a story I heard the other day. A friend of a friend who hosted our election night viewing had had some dealings with Crossfire host Robert Novak in his prior job. (I had met Novak a few times back in the Carville days, but he always just scowled at me like I was the help.) When this fellow mentioned Native Americans, Novak barked, “I’m a Native American. They’re Indians.” And you wonder why the Lakota voted overwhelmingly Democratic.

After the Deluge.

As the Dems lick their wounds and begin contemplating their post-Gephardt future, the GOP prepares to implement Dubya’s wish list. A Contract on America? It looks like we’ll find out as soon as next week, in the “lame duck” session of the 107th Congress.

Reaping the Whirlwind.

Suddenly, items that had been bottled up in the Democratic Senate have new life. President Bush has new hopes for action on his conservative slate of judges, his energy plan calling for drilling in Alaska’s wildlife refuge, and the policies he favors on topics such as homeland security, terrorism insurance and prescription drug coverage. With Democrats losing their ability to set the Senate schedule and launch probes of the administration, chances improve for Bush’s hopes to extend last year’s tax cuts, curtail jury awards, cut business regulations and overhaul Medicare. Welcome to the new national order.

If there’s any silver lining to this nightmare, it’s that the Dems may finally be forced to do the extensive soul-searching they should have started two years ago. What does the party stand for? What does it stand against? Where do we go from here? What does it say about the party that the the reform candidate everybody got excited about two years ago was a Republican? All these questions are now begging for answers. As many other pundits are noting this bleak morning (and before), it’s time to clean house. New leadership is needed, but where will it come from? Remember, in 1990, nobody really saw Clinton coming…let’s hope history repeats itself before Dubya irrevocably screws up the judiciary, the economy, the environment, and, of course, the fate of the world. Update: Gephardt’s done…whomever replaces him will make for an interesting start to Democratic reconstruction.

Woo boy.

Oh, man…it’s ugly. You know it’s a bad election night when the highlight is seeing Carville wear a trash can on his head. I guess we Dems should’ve expected this the minute most of the party capitulated to Dubya’s wag-the-dog Iraq vote. If you don’t give the American people a choice, they won’t make one. Sigh…

Fight to the Finish.

On the day before the big show, many of the wonks predict Republican gains in the House. But, on the brighter side for the Dems, it’s looking like Erskine Bowles has an outside chance of stealing Jesse Helms’ seat from Liddy Dole.

Same as it ever was.

The Washington Post predicts the status quo will prevail on Tuesday, with the GOP keeping the House and the Dems holding the Senate. Hmmm…ok. I suspect had 9-11 not occurred, we’d be looking at a 1994-like landslide against Dubya and for the Dems. But if holding the line is the best we can hope for right now, so be it.

Regime Change.

Rolling Stone writer William Greider thinks the Dems need to get rid of Daschle and Gephardt. I always liked Daschle – in fact, of the current (admittedly lame) crop of Democratic presidential contenders he and John Kerry were my top two choices. But after the Majority Leader’s capitulation on the Iraq resolution, I’ve definitely soured on him. [As I’ve noted many times here, however you feel about the (all-too-)suddenly all-consuming issue of Iraq, it is Congress’s job to declare war, not the President’s.] As for Gephardt, he’s been trying for too hard, too long. Somebody should’ve told him years ago that, in the media age, a man without eyebrows will never be President. At any rate, I think Greider’s point here is essentially sound — The Democratic leadership needs to stop imagining themselves in higher offices and start drawing lines in the sand.

R.I.P. Senator Paul Wellstone 1944-2002.


Oh no. This is horrible news. Wellstone was the progressive lion of the Senate. He’s going to be missed in so many ways. And, while it seems utterly rude to consider politics at this moment of personal tragedy, lest anyone else out there was at first imagining a Jeanne Carnahan scenario to save the contested Senate seat, his wife and daughter are also among the deceased. Will Governor Ventura appoint someone to the seat? Ted Mondale or Skip Humphrey? Whomever it is, I’m positive they won’t fill Wellstone’s shoes.

Paul Wellstone was one of the last champions of the little guy, fighting daily for campaign finance reform, corporate accountability, universal health care, and a cleaner, safer environment. When the Democrats were falling over each other to prostrate themselves before Gore, Wellstone broke ranks to support Bill Bradley. When all too many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress voted to cede their constitutionally-mandated authority to debate and declare war, Wellstone voted no to Dubya’s Johnson-esque power grab. In sum, Wellstone had in surplus those characteristics that are in such short supply in today’s Capitol — vision, compassion, and above all, integrity. In a sea of mealy-mouthed, equivocating liberals, he was a bold, fighting progressive.

And he is struck down in his prime. Meanwhile, Jesse “Race-baiting” Helms and Strom “Dixiecrat” Thurmond just go on and on and on. Sometimes the world seems so goddamn unfair I just can’t wrap my mind around it.