Democrats Stepping Up? It's About Time
On Meet The Press last weekend the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, began to outline the new Democratic agenda, but I'd say it got lost among his "umm"s, "uhhh"s and general incoherent stuttering (can someone replace him, please?)
According to Roll Call, it appears that there will be a formal (and hopefully competent) roll out of the new Democratic Party message this fall, earlier than the originally planned Spring '06 release. One wonders why it's even taken them this long; I get that it's in preparation for the November '06 elections, but the extreme vacuum of leadership in Washington would seem to have created the perfect opportunity for Democrats to step forward and rise to the occasion. Instead, they've been content to hang back and let the Republicans implode while successfully promoting the frame that Democrats are "the party of no" with "no new ideas." I can only hope that long lasting damage has not been done and that the strategy will be a winning one but they'll have to prove it if they want any more money out of me. In the meantime, I am cautiously encouraged by the main points of the agenda, front paged at dailyKos:
According to Roll Call, it appears that there will be a formal (and hopefully competent) roll out of the new Democratic Party message this fall, earlier than the originally planned Spring '06 release. One wonders why it's even taken them this long; I get that it's in preparation for the November '06 elections, but the extreme vacuum of leadership in Washington would seem to have created the perfect opportunity for Democrats to step forward and rise to the occasion. Instead, they've been content to hang back and let the Republicans implode while successfully promoting the frame that Democrats are "the party of no" with "no new ideas." I can only hope that long lasting damage has not been done and that the strategy will be a winning one but they'll have to prove it if they want any more money out of me. In the meantime, I am cautiously encouraged by the main points of the agenda, front paged at dailyKos:
Among the proposals are: "real security" for America through stronger investments in U.S. armed forces and benchmarks for determining when to bring troops home from Iraq; affordable health insurance for all Americans; energy independence in 10 years; an economic package that includes an increase in the minimum wage and budget restrictions to end deficit spending; and universal college education through scholarships and grants as well as funding for the No Child Left Behind act.
Democrats will also promise to return ethical standards to Washington through bipartisan ethics oversight and tighter lobbying restrictions, increase assistance to Katrina disaster victims through Medicaid and housing vouchers, save Social Security from privatization and tighten pension laws.
posted by Todd at 12:20 PM
2 Comments:
Good luck getting the Democrats together under a single message. Hasn't happened since the New Deal! recall that this the party that couldn't even agree on how to word impeachment proceedings for Nixon during Watergate!
Anyway, it won't matter unless the Democrats have the competence to execute a message, not to mention the money. And with Delay running the House as a well-oiled shake-down machine, I doubt those special interests will be giving to Democrats. They haven't been yet, so why should they start?
By the way, Rahm Emanuel is a good fundraiser, it's why he's in charge of the DCCC. Good luck, Rahm.
well, he may have fundraising prowess on the corporate level, but at the grassroots level as far as I'm concerned, he sucks. In fact, when I got called by the DNC for a donation months ago, I told them no, that I'll be contributing on a race by race basis and I told the woman very specifically why: b/c Rahm Emanuel on Meet The Press played John Kerry's coy game with Iraq, even after seeing how it lost him the election, and said that he would have voted to authorize the war, even knowing everything we know now, had he been in Congress at the time. What a loser. I don't think the phone banker knew who the hell I was talking about.
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