Posted on 12/06/2006 9:40:41 AM PST by presidio9
After a five-year Republican lock on power, the quagmire in Iraq handed US President George W. Bush a Democrat-controlled Congress in late 2006, which is likely to make his last two years in the White House tough ones.
Democrats rode public perceptions of Bush's mishandling of the fight in Iraq to take control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years in November 7 elections.
Since Bush came into office in January 2001, Democrats have had little impact on his policies, only able to raise questions of his policies in limited hearings and non-binding resolutions.
But when the new Congress opens in January, they will be able to press Bush heavily to reverse key policies, and Bush will have few of the tools that allowed him to snub the opposition for five years.
As soon as the November votes were counted, Democrats boosted pressure on the president to set a timetable for pulling US troops out of Iraq and to engage directly with Syria and Iran on bringing security to Iraq.
A week before the election Bush had been defiant, saying in a campaign speech that "The Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."
But just hours after the Republican defeat, which even Bush acknowledged was a trouncing, the president bowed to pressure and replaced Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the embattled architect of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Bush's party also lost when Democrats successfully painted them as fostering a "culture of corruption" in Washington. The epithet stuck with voters who had seen the previous two years full-up with scandals involving lobbyists, under-age congressional aides, numerous Republican lawmakers and millions of dollars in questionable contracting deals, campaign donations and skewed legislation.
One scandal saw the top Republican in the House of Representatives, Tom Delay, forced to give up his seat. Another saw the conviction of arguably the most powerful Republican lobbyist in Washington, Jack Abramoff.
Republicans were also embarrassed five weeks before the election when another senior representative had to resign his seat on charges that he had made sexual overtures to numerous teenage male aides in Congress.
Democrats charged as well that Florida representative Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s behavior had been known for years to Republican leaders but that they had covered it up.
The case was like a gift from heaven for Democrats, who had stood by for years as Republicans parroted anti-homosexual stances to curry the most conservative voters.
Democrats are not taking over without problems. Nancy Pelosi, who will in January become the first woman ever to preside over the House as speaker, was rebuffed in her choice for her top lieutenant. Democrats instead voted one of her party rivals in as majority leader.
Democrats are challenged in other ways. Bush can use his veto power to reject their proposals, and their weak majority in the Senate -- 51 seats to the Republicans' 49 -- will make it difficult to override a veto.
Excepting minor bills and procedural laws, they will find it hard to reverse the major Bush initiatives of the past five years or to push through ambitious programs the Republicans don't back.
Moreover, Bush still controls military and foreign policy, making it difficult for the Democrats to force a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
But control of Congress will give Democrats a platform to begin fighting to recover the presidency in 2008, with the battle essentially under way as soon as the vote was tallied on November 7.
Democrat governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack was first to officially throw his hat into the presidential ring in late November.
But also eying the presidency are African-American first-term Senator Barack Obama, and Senator Hillary Clinton, widely considered the front-running Democrat.
Senator John McCain, popular with voters in both parties, is seen at the moment as having the best chance for the Republican nomination. But pundits also have their eyes on former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, both considered more moderate than Bush and his backers.
"Senator John McCain, popular with voters in both parties,"
total bs.
Lets see--click on print---collect pages from the printer---open birdcage....................
"Senator John McCain, popular with the clown car media,"
However I can find several DUmmies who like him. No suprise there.
By contrast, Dims wouldn't have been emabarrassed, wouldn't have been forced to resign, wouldn't even have been asked by their "leadership" to resign, and probably, if history proves to hold true, would have questioned the intrusion into their "personal lives".
democrats have had little impact because they have had NO ideas and have done nothing but demogogue their opposition to every Bush policy.
This article is nothing but liberal circular logic, aimed at relieving the Democrats of all responsibility for their vote for the war in Iraq.
was this posted as news? WOW! They dont even try to pretend anymore do they?
Nothing biased in AP's use of the Democratic boilerplate description of Iraq as a "quagmire" now is there?
Korean quagmire erodes Truman's confidence and power
Sorry AP, Harry S. Truman is now a respected leader even though he had Korea and Bush will be as well.
Actually this was from AFP, AP's surrender monkey cousin.
The Ds created the quagmire. The quagmire is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC.
The Baker Surrender document will also be used to pound W into mush. Unless W keeps his morale and right thinking, the war against Islamofascism will be lost and the Dems will force the USA into a Third World position until about 2050, when Islam takes us all over. So, what to do? Win the war regardless of the left's appeasement.
The Ds won the election. That is reality. All work for the next two years will be to resist their fantasies. All thought of Conservative values will have to be preserved in cosmoline for the day that power is returned. Perhaps '08, but don't bank on it.
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