Posted on 10/02/2004 12:47:25 AM PDT by notforhire
WASHINGTON (AP) - After Congress shuffled the federal bureaucracy in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by creating the Homeland Security Department, Democrats lost control of the Senate and four seats in the House. With a new government reorganization on the table - this time a restructuring of the nation's intelligence network - Democrats fear Republicans will succeed in using a critical national security debate to play to voter fears about terrorism.
"There is anxiety - you will not be surprised to hear - among some of my Democratic colleagues in Congress, based on the 2002 experience with the Department of Homeland Security, that this will happen again," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
House GOP leaders say they don't know what Democrats are talking about. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he doesn't expect the intelligence overhaul recommended by the Sept. 11 investigative commission to be a factor at the voting booths.
"It's not a top issue on people's minds," DeLay told reporters this week. "It should be on our minds because there are things we need to be doing, but as far as a political issue I think frankly this is an inside-the-Beltway thing."
Nervous lawmakers, nonetheless, point to a bill written by DeLay and other Republican leaders addressing the 9/11 commission recommendations on intelligence, national security and congressional reorganization.
It includes provisions increasing law enforcement powers and making life rougher for illegal immigrants that the minority Democrats say are specifically aimed at getting them to vote "no" on a popular bill, with an election looming.
"There is no confusion about the timing of this bill," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Republican leaders expect "Democrats to either vote for it or to be attacked about being against protecting the American people if they vote against it."
Even some Republicans are worried that some of the political maneuvering could doom bills addressing the Sept. 11 commission's report. "I have concerns that some on my side of the aisle want there to be some poison pills," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.
"If we can't put partisan politics and presidential campaigning aside when we're trying to strengthen our nation's ability to deter and respond to a terrorism attack, we might as well go home," added Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "This is just too important to allow partisan politics to interfere with the progress of this bill."
Republicans control the House and Senate as well as the White House. Democrats need to pick up to two Senate seats next month to regain the control they lost in 2002. In the House, they need a net gain of 12 seats to take back the speaker's gavel for the first time in a decade.
The last time control of Congress was up for grabs, the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department was being created. Democrats look back to former Sen. Max Cleland's defeat in Georgia two years ago as an example of what they call the Republican strategy.
Cleland backed legislation to create a Homeland Security Department even before President Bush embraced the idea. But he sided with Democrats on the issue of maintaining government workers' civil service and union rights when they would be shifted into the new department.
In a commercial in the campaign's final weeks, GOP challenger Saxby Chambliss accused Cleland of voting "against the president's vital homeland security efforts 11 times." Chambliss won the seat.
In addition to losing Cleland, Democrats lost control of the Senate that Jim Jeffords of Vermont had earlier given them by switching from Republican to independent. Republicans also widened their majority in the House.
Democrats say the GOP is hoping the same thing will happen with the Sept. 11 recommendations if they put in provisions that Democrats don't like. "One House member even referred to having Democrats over a barrel in a description of this strategy," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
"The Democrats got spanked hard on homeland security," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "I don't think they want to get spanked again."
Lieberman, who is sponsoring a Senate version of the bill without the police and immigration measures, said the House GOP leaders' tactics are very risky.
"Anyone who chooses to put up poison partisan political pills ... into this bill is going to end up swallowing it themselves," he said.
The Senate bill is S. 2845. The House bill is H.R. 10.
But, how do you really feel?
"It includes provisions increasing law enforcement powers and making life rougher for illegal immigrants that the minority Democrats say are specifically aimed at getting them to vote "no" on a popular bill, with an election looming. "
This is highlighted for all those who love to post anti-Bushisms about illegal immigrants. Goes to the heart of the matter.
"It includes provisions increasing law enforcement powers and making life rougher for illegal immigrants that the minority Democrats say are specifically aimed at getting them to vote "no" on a popular bill, with an election looming. "
Why would the Democrats want to make life easier for illegal immigrants?
Screw the rats - - give them rat poison (pills).
Why would the Democrats want to make life easier for illegal immigrants?
Screw the rats - - give them rat poison (pills).
Votes, government spending, power.
Roger that!
Poor Mad Max. Life's getting tuffer all the time.
OH!!! The democrats aren't playing on anyone's fears by being liars and saying if reelected Bush will reinstate the draft! The AP is hopeless...
Aside from DeLay, isn't it curious how the only Republicans quoted by this scumbag AP reporter are a couple of Northeast liberals, Shays and Collins?
You mean the scumbag Democrats want all the illegals they can get so they can have an excuse to grow government and expand the welfare state, thereby gaining more POWER for themselves? No. The Democrats would never want something like that....
Standard Operating Procedure. (SSDD)
I wonder what Max, Rassman, and the rest of Kerry's Band of Brothers have been up to? It appears that they've been dropped like hot potatoes from the campaign bus. You don't see them around their Lieutenant anymore since he dropped Vietnam from his platform. I figured he'd dump them once they outlived their usefullness to him.
Hell hath no fury like a Veteran scorned.
sKerry can’t afford to piss him off. Max knows how Blather got his hand on the documents!
Why would the Democrats want to make life easier for illegal immigrants?Screw the rats - - give them rat poison (pills).
Isn't it truely ironic that one of the most effective rat poisons (warfarin) ever to hit the market is sold under the name of D-Con.
Barn Owl
Agreed!! Screw 'em!!! Do it for Miguel Estrada!!
"making life rougher for illegal immigrants that the minority Democrats say are specifically aimed at getting them to vote "no" on a popular bill, with an election looming."
Of course Democrats are against making things more difficult for ILLEGAL immigrants. ILLEGAL immigrants are one of the democrats main voting blocks.
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