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.
Category: GOP
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.
Be Karl Rove …
and make your own Bush speech. I wonder if this is the same interface they use to program the real Dubyabot.
Misery Index.
For the first time in ten years, crime goes up. Ah, the Dubya era…remember when the Dems were meant to be “soft on crime”? Of course, that was before the GOP allied itself with the gun nuts.
Lincoln Bedroom, Schmincoln Bedroom.
Looks like Iraq or the economy isn’t keeping him too busy. As it turns out, Rove and Dubya are using the White House for midterm partisan purposes in unprecedented fashion. Even NASA’s got in on the act, and what the hell has Bush done for NASA?
The Other Shoe Drops.
Perhaps content that Saddam’s “resurgence” has snuffed out media coverage of Enrongate for the time being, Dubya tries to gut the SEC’s budget increase, making it impossible for the agency to fulfill the requirements of the recently-signed Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Absolutely shameful. And, as per usual, I think we can guess who’s the brains behind these latest shenanigans.
SNL Talk Express.
John McCain gets flak from Drudge and elsewhere for missing a Defense spending vote to prep for Saturday Night Live. Hmm. I think you can go ahead and file this complaint along with the ones about Cornel West being in The Matrix sequels. While it’s true that all the rehearsing in the world isn’t going to make 75% of today’s SNL skits funny, the bill in question passed 93-1. I’m not sure how McCain voting on it would have made much of a difference. And it’s not like this is last week’s Iraq vote, where every Senator should be on record for or against ceding their Constitutional authority to the President. In fact, I think you can argue it’ll make more difference to have a few grotesquely apolitical Americans see “that cool senator” on a late-night show.