Category: RepubliDems

Homeland (and Corporate) Security.

John McCain joins the Dems in fighting the Homeland Security Bill, mainly because it has swollen 450 pages since election day with ridiculous helpings of GOP pork. Looks like the only entities with security in Dubya’s universe are pharmaceutical companies and the anti-terrorism industry. Update: Despite McCain’s vote, the Dems lose again. (Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Zell Miller voted with the GOP, as did Wellstone’s current replacement, Dean Barkley.)

Another Contender.

Harold Ford, Jr. joins the race to succeed Gephardt in the House. I dunno…I know Ford (House/Campaign/Funding) is considered a rising star in the party, but at 32 he seems a bit young and inexperienced to take on the mantle of leadership. I’d still pick Pelosi over Ford, and both over Frost, given the latter’s left-baiting yesterday. (“I think that her politics are to the left…”) Update: Frost is out, meaning barring a major upset Nancy Pelosi is the new House leader.

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.

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.