Posted on 05/02/2002 8:13:52 AM PDT by finnman69
Daschle Corners His Own Party
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Thanks to Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.), November may bring an almost unprecedented moment to modern American politics: total Republican control of both elective branches of the federal government.
Since the early 1930s, when the ill-fated Herbert Hoover sat in the White House, Republicans have controlled the House, Senate and presidency simultaneously only twice. Both times it was briefly and precariously.
The 83rd Congress, elected with President Eisenhower in 1952, started with a 221-to-215 Republican majority in the House (with 1 Independent). The Senate started with a 48-to-47 Republican majority (with 1 Independent). But during the two-years of the 83rd, nine senators died. The Democrats temporarily enjoyed a two-seat majority, but, by prior agreement, the GOP retained the leadership. It was to little avail: In the 1954 elections, the Democrats won back the majority.
From President Bush’s inauguration on January 20 of last year, until June 5, when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont officially defected to the Democrats, the Republicans again controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress. In that short, sweet period, Congress enacted one significant piece of conservative legislation: the Bush tax cut.
Taking over the Senate leadership, Daschle promised a "spirit of bipartisanship" and warned that "polarized positions are an indulgence . . . the Senate cannot afford and our nation will not tolerate."
Yeah, right.
Except for a short respite following September 11, Daschle has been relentlessly partisan and polarizing. He has blocked every initiative supported by both the White House and the House Republican majority. The only major legislation he has let pass was a campaign finance reform law opposed by most House and Senate Republicans.
Prepare for the blowback. Daschle’s dog-in-the-manager strategy has returned to Republicans the same two clubs they used to beat up Democrats and take the majority in the 1994 mid-term elections: a nationalized agenda of issues that motivates both the GOP base and some swing voters, and a national liberal bogey man to pin up as poster boy of the enemy forces.
In 1994, the Contract for America served as the agenda; Bill Clinton played the poster boy. In 2002, Daschle will play poster boy; and the agenda will be a short list of hot items Daschle has obstructed in the Senate while pandering to the left wing.
Bush clearly understands the opportunity Daschle has handed him. Air Force One briefly touched down in Daschle’s home state of South Dakota last Wednesday. Before his plane took off again, Bush had raised a state record $350,000 for Rep. John Thune (R.-S.D.). In November, Thune will defeat Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.). All else being equal, that alone will return the Senate to Republican control.
Back in Washington, Bush has maneuvered the GOP into position to carry on a sharp fall debate with the Democrats on issues on which popular opinion tilts in the Republican direction.
At Bush’s urging, the House voted two weeks ago to make last year’s tax cut permanent, reversing a provision that would terminate the cuts in 2011. Daschle vows he will not allow the Senate to vote on the measure. That sets up a straightforward referendum: Pick the Republican and cut taxes, pick the Democrat and increase taxes.
Daschle led Senate Democrats last week in a vote to prevent oil drilling in a tiny portion of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Major labor unions favor drilling. So does anyone who ponders the oil shortages, price spikes and unemployment that will follow if conflict in the Middle East inspires a new Arab oil embargo.
Greenpeace and the Sierra Club may have cheered Daschle’s blockade of Alaska, but Middle America didn’t. It sets up another straightforward referendum: Pick the Republican and create jobs at home while keeping gas prices low, pick the Democrat and create jobs in Iraq while driving gas prices higher. Daschle’s intransigence also helps the GOP attack the Democrats on their most vulnerable issue: national security.
Daschle is still stalling the Brownback-Landrieu bill to ban all human cloning. The bill passed the House by more than 100 votes. The Senate Democratic co-sponsor, Mary Landrieu of heavily Catholic and evangelical Christian Louisiana, endorsed the bill so fast in her home-state press that its Republican sponsors didn’t even get a chance to talk to her beforehand. Landrieu is a liberal, but she is no fool. Daschle is both. When Bush "wholeheartedly" endorsed Brownback-Landrieu, the pro-clone Daschle responded: "I think the American people are on our side on this issue." But some Senate Democrats aren’t even sure they are on Daschle’s side.
Another straightforward referendum: Pick the Republican and stop human cloning, pick the Democrat and get the Boys From Brazil.
And Daschle has stopped confirmation proceedings for almost all Bush nominees to the appellate courts. On May 9, Harvard-educated Honduran immigrant Miguel Estrada will celebrate one full year of waiting for a hearing—because Daschle fears he may not be a liberal activist in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Stephen Breyer.
Another straight-forward referendum: Pick the Republican and get judges who won’t make law from the bench, pick the Democrat and get judges who think child pornography is free speech but the Ten Commandments are not.
Conservatives should cheer up. If they work hard this fall, next spring they will enjoy a political leverage they have not seen since the days of Calvin Coolidge.
Make Mullah Shorty Da$$hole totally irrelevant as a midget in charge of the minority party.
Then watch the changes done by a Republican Congress and a Republican President!
Point being that popularity of the president and a war does not lead to his party gaining seats in midterm elections.
In Illinois, Republican George Ryan's campaign committee was declared a continuing criminal enterprise. Lead man Scott Fawell, and others, have been indicted big-time. Rep candidate Jim Ryan (no relation) has already called for Gov Ryan's resignation. Party chances in November? Ha!
In Michigan, Rep candidate Dick Posthumous is a total nonentity. When he walks into a room, nobody even knows he's there. Zero TV presence, can't give a command to a dog let alone make a speech. On top of it he's short, slightly built, and soft spoken. Granholm has all the right qualities. She'll have coattails, even though she's Fieger's handmaiden.
Wisconsin? Are you smokin' the happy terbakky? Another governor's race lost to a whatizface candidate, and that won't help the House candidates.
I hope the Rep party is in better shape elsewhere.
We have all been saying this since Daschle took over after jumping Jeffords jumped!
Shall we say "Thank you, tiny Tommy, now or later?" </sarcasm off
This ticks me off. Anyone else?
And with Trent Lott leading the charge, how can we lose?
Oh Sh**!
They won't. So what do we do then?
I don't know what we can do with the Rinos from the liberal states. We all know that they are not republicans and there is little that we can do to change their behavior in the senate. Maybe if they act like Rats, a strong leader could remove them from committees. Of course if you do that, they would follow Jefford's path!
Know what? I'm going to bookmark this thread too. For future reference.
Point being that popularity of the president and a war does not lead to his party gaining seats in midterm elections.
I don't think 2002 will be a normal mid-term election cycle. It is beginning to look more like a mirror image of the 1962 mid-term elections. In 1960 Kennedy won the presidency in one of the closest elections of the 20th century. He had no coat tails, and his party actually lost seats. In 1962, the Democrats actually made gains in the mid-term elections rather than lose seats.
We all know how that election turned out. Dem gains.
You talked about three governor races, which have absolutely nothing to do with this article. I think the Dems will do well in governorships (by the way, polls show IL and WI as dead heats, w/very slight GOP leads), but I think the GOP keeps the House and gets the Senate.
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