GOP troubles trigger hopes
The Wasington Times
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 30, 2005
A number of analysts and Democratic strategists say Democrats have
opportunities but face problems even more fundamental than President Bush's
declining poll numbers and the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay.
Mr. Bush is running through a second-term soft patch in his presidency as a
result of Iraq, rising gas prices and dissatisfaction with the economy, but
some analysts say this will be only transitory if Democrats can't produce a
well-defined agenda of their own, promoted by leaders of national heft and
stature.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California yesterday made full use of
the DeLay indictment, saying of Republicans that "I don't think some of them
know right from wrong. And I think that I've said it for a long time that there
is an ethical cloud over this Capitol."
At her press conference yesterday, she repeatedly used the phrase "culture
of corruption" and called the indictment merely "the latest example" of
cronyism and "not surprising" since, she said, the Republicans are the
"handmaiden" of special interests.
Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat, added a similar note, saying
that "the criminal indictment of Tom DeLay is the first chink in the armor of
corruption that has so clouded, consumed and controlled the Republican majority
over the past few years."
But independent and Democratic pollsters have been saying all summer that
while job approval polls for Mr. Bush and the Republican Congress have fallen
sharply, the Democrats haven't made any voter approval gains, either.
A recent Democracy Corps poll, conducted by Democratic pollster Stan
Greenberg, found voter "feelings about Democrats are at a 2.5-year low." Only
48 percent of voters said they would vote Democratic in 2006, virtually
identical to voters' preferences in 2004, he said.
Mr. Greenberg and other Democratic campaign strategists have complained for
months that their party's leaders, Mrs. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry
Reid, and their leading presidential contenders have been unable to reach a
unifying party consensus on a campaign agenda.
After crunching exhaustive voter preference numbers, Mr. Greenberg is
telling party leaders that the present "Democratic margin reflects Republican
slippage but no subsequent gains for Democrats, who have not yet defined
themselves or what changes they would bring."
Al From, founder and chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council
tells reporters that his party has a chance to make gains in next year's
midterm elections, but warns "you can only get so far attacking the other guy,
no matter how bad he is."
If Democrats are to win back the presidency in 2008, they will need a
positive agenda, he says, and so far they haven't produced one.
The DLC has sought Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who leads all of
her potential Democratic rivals in the party's presidential preference polls,
to produce a party agenda before the end of the year for a test run in the 2006
elections.
At her conference yesterday, Mrs. Pelosi tried to use the "culture of
corruption" she said Mr. DeLay represents to argue for Democratic policy
agendas, saying she hoped "some level of shame would set in on the Republicans"
as a result.
"This culture of corruption is at the expense of the American people," she
said, blaming Republicans for hurricane-relief woes, high gas prices, and high
prescription-drug costs. "Republicans will go to any length, I think they have
proven, to benefit their cronies, again, at the expense of the American
people."
Meantime, Democratic-leaning analysts and party strategists have become
increasingly critical of another structural problem undermining the Democrats'
chances in 2008: a weak bench among its leadership, especially its latest crop
of presidential contenders.
"Democrats are at the moment leaderless. There are few Democrats who command
enough attention to make the party's case to the country," political analyst
Ryan Lizza writes in the New Republic magazine, which generally reflects
Democratic sentiment.
"Much of the GOP's post-September 11 success, especially the victories in
the 2002 midterm elections, were a direct result of Bush's popularity and his
cross-country stumping for Republican candidates. There is no similar figure to
energize the Democratic Party."
Independent election pollster John Zogby is even harsher in his assessment
of the Democrats' emerging presidential lineup.
"Today Democrats find themselves in a situation where they don't have truly
national leaders. Hillary is an exception but she is also a lightning rod," Mr.
Zogby said yesterday.
"But after [Sen. Edward M.] Kennedy and [Sen. Robert C.] Byrd, there really
are no Senate giants on the Democratic side with immediately respectable names
that can heal both sides of the party. They're ultra-partisans."
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