Posted on 11/12/2006 6:49:30 AM PST by taylorstreet
The newly elected Democratic class of 2006, which is set to descend on the Capitol next week, will hardly be the first freshmen to arrive in Washington promising to make a difference.
The last time Congress changed hands, the Republican freshman class of 1994 roared into town under the leadership of Newt Gingrich as speaker and quickly advanced a conservative agenda of exceptional ambition.
Many in the class of 2006, especially those who delivered the new Democratic majorities by winning Republican seats, show little appetite for that kind of ideological crusade. But in interviews with nearly half of them this week, the freshmen — 41 in the House and 9 in the Senate, including one independent — conveyed a keen sense of their own moment in history, and a distinct world view: they say they were given a rare opportunity by voters, many of them independents and Republicans, who were tired of the partisanship and gridlock in Washington.
Now, they say, they have to produce — to deal with long-festering problems like access to affordable health care and the loss of manufacturing jobs, and to find a bipartisan consensus for an exit strategy in Iraq, a source of continuing division not only between but also within the parties.
Many of them say they must also, somehow, find a way to address the growing anxiety among voters about a global economy that no longer seems to work for them. There is a strong populist tinge to this class.
In general, they set themselves an extraordinary (political veterans might say impossible) task: to avoid the ideological wars that have so dominated Congress in recent years, to be pragmatists, and to change the tone in Washington after a sharply partisan campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
No "Barf Alert"?
That's funny; none of these people talked about securing their elected position, increasing their staff size, or lining their pockets with contributions or gifts to their children or spouse. What a nice bunch of people!
1st they did not mean it. Like every other political con man they just told you what you wanted to hear to get your vote. They will run as Reagan clone at home and morph into Ted Kennedy in DC. The other reason that "analysis" is utterly inane is that by controlling the Congress, their votes will assign the Committee heads who will all be long time DC Leftist insiders.
They may claim to be "Conservative" the agenda that will come out of the Committees will be hard Left. So the ONLY things they will get to vote on will be the Left's agenda.
Guess what happens then. Your supposedly "Very Conservative" Dems suddenly forget everything they said on the campaign trail and revert to their real Leftist roots.
Bill Clinton did the same thing in 1992. Ran around and promised you he was a "new kind of Democrat" and turned right into the old kind in DC. Once again, like in 1992, the "Conservative" threw a tempetanrum because their every emotional whimsy was not granted the second they felt it. Once again they destroyed their own power base.
Only problem is this. There is no Newt waiting to rescue you this time. You just fired a bunch of guys that went to DC with Newt. Those rural districts pretty much elect a guy for life. They are not going to suddenly swing back to you.
The Dems are going to open the pork barrel wide open to buy those those districts year after year after year with YOUR money. They even have the PERFECT vehicle for it.
Simply dump it in the Homeland Security bill. NO one can vote against that. Way to go Conservative. Way to make yourself a political Minority for a generation! Well done! Hope you enjoy the consequences of your temper tantrum!
The Democrats plan is simple continue to castigate and
impede the Bush Admn., raise taxes and spend every stinking
dime on frivolities just like their "republican" predecessors!
Well, that settles that. They are looking to exit Iraq, and not to win in Iraq. Bast@#ds!
Hee hee hee. That wascally New Yawk Slimes. Always coming up with the phony, baloney BS stories. They STILL think that the people who live in this country are a bunch of blockheads. Anyone who believes the crap, give me a call. I've got a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that I'd like to talk to you about.
All the news about congress will be good now. All the news about our President will be bad.
Bring back the sedition act or give it up for good.
And they cover it all so very neatly by labelling it all "centrist" and as having been "mandated" by the voters.
This seems fairly ideological to me, and I'm not just talking about the bias in the article.
Dealing with affordable healthcare means a government-run healthcare system ... ideological.
Loss of manufacturing jobs means increasing the minimum wage for all those folks now working at McDonalds (or whatever the Dems keep saying is happening) ... ideological.
Exit strategy in Iraq means some variation of pulling out ... ideological.
The NYT and the rest of the MSM are going to continue to try to convince us that the Dems are wonderful people doing wonderful things, but just because the NYT says it's not ideological doesn't meant that's so.
It's hard to develop an appetite for something you've never tasted.
When the death of the United States and Western civilization is analyzed by future historians, your marvelous rant should be the standard prologue.
Well done.
You're going to have to lose that attitude. What's happened has happened. If you want to see the GOP have a chance in two years, you'd better figure out where everything went wrong and start trying to solve the problem rather than blaming people.
Whether you agree or disagree with the principles people vote on, the Republican Party has largely ignored the conservative issues that brought them a majority. Instead of blaming people who couldn't stomach to vote for RINOs and scandal-plagued Republicans (Pennsylvania excluded), you need to do what you can to help bring the party back to its core defining principle of limited government. Whining and name calling because you don't like how people voted (or didn't vote) only further alienates people.
Do you know that the majority of people no longer view the GOP as the conservative party?
With it's not so hidden assumptions, and snide tone, this one needs a:
I don't think it was so much voters punishing Republicans (the petulant children as so stated here), as it was people who usually vote republican not showing up to vote because they felt if the republicans were no longer conservatives, why bother? What's the use? Maybe they didn't want to vote democrat. So they just didn't vote. I myself held my nose and voted for quite a few R's who have done nothing to deserve my vote.
I bit my tongue many times in the last week as people on FR blasted anyone who didn't vote straight R. But you know what? It's not the voters fault.
Medicare reform? Bush not vetoing McCain-Feingold? Denny Hastert saying they were above the law? A small sampling of the current "compassionate" conservatism. They compassioned themselves right out of office.
Ronald Reagan is doing a whirly-dervish in his grave.
And FReepers want to blame voters.
I hope the party gets back to its foundations. Or they will suffer defeat again in '08.
Not just blame voters, but blame CONSERVATIVE voters who, I agree with you, stayed home. It's almost like we're being told by some that the Republican Party only has room for Republicans and no room for conservatives.
I do not think that is true, but if Republicans continue to blame others and act like the angry little kid who's taking his ball and going home, then the GOP and the conservatives stand little chance in two years.
A regular "progressive" jihad, they are.
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