Posted on 11/08/2006 3:48:50 PM PST by MadIvan
Our correspondent examines how the party masterminded its move to the centre and reined in liberals to seize hostile territories
They wear cowboy boots, chew tobacco, love hunting, hate abortion, want less government spending — and some voted for Ronald Reagan. Now they are headed to Congress as Democrats.
Although the Democrats’ victory was above all an overwhelming repudiation of the conflict in Iraq, it was also built on the back of moderate, often conservative candidates recruited to compete in traditionally Republican territory.
When Congress returns in January, both the House and Senate will see something of an ideological shift, with an influx of freshmen Democrats who, while unified in their opposition to the war, are well to the right of the party’s current caucus on cultural issues.
Their success reflects a resurgence of “Blue Dog” Democrats — socially conservative but generally economic populists — across the Midwest, and a bold new strategy to target the Republican-leaning West and South West — states such as Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico — as a way of winning back the White House in 2008.
If Jon Tester, the Democrat’s Senate candidate in Montana, wins his race against Conrad Burns — he declared victory last night but votes were still being counted — the chamber will have a Democrat who is an anti-abortion, pro-gun, three-generation farmer with a buzz cut, three missing fingers on his left hand and no big fan of Hillary Clinton.
Jim Webb, the Democrat favoured to win a probable recount in the Virginia Senate race, was Reagan’s Navy Secretary. A social conservative, he hates liberals and likes guns so much he gave one to his son at the age of 8. He champions, as he puts it, “Southern redneck culture”. A decorated Vietnam veteran, he converted to the Democrats only over his opposition to the Iraq war.
Bob Casey, who soundly defeated the Republican Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, is also anti-abortion. Like many of the new Democrats, he ran a profoundly populist protectionist economic message which attracted many blue-collar “Reagan Democrats” back to the party in the Midwest, where job losses and economic pessimism combined with Iraq to make the region one of the bleakest landscapes for Republicans yesterday.
Heath Shuler, a former quarterback for the Washington Redskins, was once courted by the Republicans as a possible congressional candidate. He is anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-free trade — and is now the Democrat representative for the North Carolina 11th District.
In Indiana, a state overwhelmingly won by President Bush in 2004, three Republicans in the House of Representatives lost seats. All faced conservative Democrats. One, Brad Ellsworth, a county sheriff, is a social conservative who signed a no-tax-rise pledge during the campaign. Joe Donnelly was another cultural conservative winner in Indiana.
In Colorado, Democrats continued their push into the West with victory in the state’s gubernatorial contest, meaning the party now has a sweep of western governors stretching from Canada to Mexico, through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
In Kentucky, John Yarmuth, a former Republican candidate running as a Democrat, beat Anne Northup, a five-term veteran. Democrats also picked up an open seat in Republican Arizona and even unseated a Republican incumbent in Kansas — where Mr Bush won
62 per cent of the vote in 2004.
These new Democrats represent what Rahm Emanuel, the congressman who masterminded its takeover of the House, described as the future of the party, and the key to its presidential hopes. The growing belief of many Democrat strategists is that the South — the party’s base until the 1960s, but now solidly Republican — is beyond their reach, and that the future lies in targeting the Midwest and West with moderate candidates. That theory was bolstered by the defeat in Tennessee of Harold Ford. Despite running as a conservative on nearly every issue — even immigration — the black former congressman could not prevail in the one Southern senate seat in play.
The result was rich vindication for Mr Emanuel and other top Democrats who have spent two years recruiting candidates to make the party competitive in western states they had all but ceded in recent years.
Mr Emanuel and other centrists have told the incoming Democrat leadership — which is far more liberal than the new influx of moderates — that the party’s liberal wing must not dominate the agenda. The new crop of moderates will be anxious to keep the party rooted to the middle ground.
Their arrival on Capitol Hill will be one of the first early tests of the leadership skills of Nancy Pelosi who, as House Speaker, will have to forge a coalition in a party that has profound philosophical disparities.
Ironically, the greatest losses for Republicans came in the North East, the last redoubt of the party’s mainstream moderates. They were routed.
These cowboys are gonna get their smackdown come January
Well, they like Klansmen with a "D" by their name (Byrd) and Fundamentalist Protestants who vote Democratic (most American Blacks).
Regarding Casey, people here just assumed he was pro-life because his father was...according to the national right to life group, he will vote pro-choice with Hillary, Teddy, and Harry...abortion was not an issue here because everyone knew Santorum was pro-life , and thought Booby was his daddy....
The Blue Dogs are a MOB.. for Mob Rule = Democracy...
More or less like "conservative Canadians".. You know socialists..
As to their veracity - did they merely hold these positions for face value only - time will tell.
And as long as the Democrat party retains its "proud" and unbending platform position on abortion, and fails to demonstrate legislative zeal in protecting "We the People" in our KCBA rights, I will not be voting Democrat.
A pro-abortion majority no more makes abortion right than a chr*stian majority makes chr*stianity the true religion.
This new breed reminds me of the "cowboys" that were in Saturday Night Fever, or whatever the name of that John Trivolta movie about Houston's refinery worker "cowboys" was. Spent many an hour in the saddle, the the toughest thing this bunch ever hooked their bootheels over was a bar rail.
Wait just a damn minute!!
I wear cowboy boots, sometimes biker boots, love hunting, love fishing even more, hate abortions, want less government spending, hate taxes and I did vote for Ronald Reagan.
There is no way in the world I would EVER vote for a filthy dim and I don't care what they SAY they NOW support.
Those that voted or 'otherwise helped' these creeps into office..... are traitors, period.
These a$$clowns can play all the smoke and mirrors they want, this is one boy they can't fool.
When Republicans are too scared to try to end abortion once and for all, at best waiting for the SCOTUS to become strong enough to reverse that abomination of some 20-something years ago, these "Blue Dogs" have plenty of room to maneuver. Nothing more has been tried with partial birth abortion. As for gun rights, that question has been settled for a while, and so so-called conservative Democrats can pose any way they want without having to back up their positions with votes. As for the blue dogs representing crime-ridden gun-grabbing hellholes like Washington DC...there aren't any.
Regards, Ivan
It's only been one day and I can't stand seeing this imbocile on my tv...all I can say is I didn't vote for him, and he's NOT my Senator....at least my county went Swann, and Santorum...and my Rep. in the House is a republican...that's the only good thing about yesterday....
Wait a minute! Why should Lieberman play ball with a party that doesn't even know if it has control of the Senate yet? Republicans could lose even more senate seats in 2008. If Lieberman caucused with the Republicans next year, he would poison his relationship with the rest of the senate DemocRATS. In two years, Presisdent Bush will be out of office, but Lieberman will still have four more years to serve on the term to which he was elected yesterday with hopes of getting reelected in 2012. Lieberman will be 65 in February; he could easily serve another two or three terms if he remains healthy. I don't think he'd jeorpardize his future in the Senate by caucusing with Republicans in 2007.
Once Sister Pelosi gets done with their indoctrination, they'll hardly be discernable from those already there. If you don't want to be here longer than one term, vote your heart.
Casey is no moderate.
Simple. It wasn't an issue this election cycle. Iraq was.
This new breed reminds me of the "cowboys" that were in Saturday Night Fever, or whatever the name of that John Trivolta movie about Houston's refinery worker "cowboys" was. Spent many an hour in the saddle, the the toughest thing this bunch ever hooked their bootheels over was a bar rail.
I know but I was thinking of a way to get rid of Warner without getting a Dim in charge of Armed Services like Ms. Clinton.
Are you saying that you believe the little butt boy Altmire, hand selected by Hillary Clinton from her very own Hillary-Care task force and funded by all the usual suspects on the left, who replaced Melissa Hart by running to her right, is going to stay conservative once he gets back to Washington?
Kudlow had the head of the Blue Dog caucus on this afternoon. He said there are about 44 of them total including those just elected. Maybe if the non-RINOs in the House sat down with them they could come up with 1/3 + 1 in the House and at least block some of the nonsense that's coming down the pike from Pelosi and company.
We have to come to grips with these realities, and try to figure out what kind of coalition we need to hold the existing red states.
The GOP already can write off the NE States. Pennsylavania seems blue for good now and Ohio is a biggie.
We've continued to lose California for awhile now.. That is a bunch of electoral votes that we seem to have no chance at, while the democrats seem to have struck on a strategy to peel off some of these western and midwestern voters.
This may be a tough nut for the next RNC chair to crack.
I will say this, even though I don't wish it to happen:
If there is some kind of big terrorist attack in a major population center, all this goes out the window, and almost every state comes into play if the security issue gets back to the top, and people reflect on who tried to stop it, and who tried to ignore it.
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