Neither Side Gets It
Reading John Fund's "The Enemy Within; Democrats may not be able to win the House, but Republicans could lose it." and the Washington Post's "Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda" brought out one thought in my mind; neither side gets it.
The Republican's in Congress are still obsessing with Tom DeLay's tactic of buying every vote by approving every earmark; even though when asked what's the biggest problem in Congress, 39% say earmarks. Don't get the idea Democrats are immune from the earmarks, the way they get passed is one party ads one, and the other says "fine, we'll okay that if you okay this."
Robert Byrd (D-WVa), who is the king of pork, has even gone so far as to dare the President to veto the bacon laden Iraq/Katrina spending bill, which has grown by 20% due to earmarks. I've driven the 8 lane interstate in West Virginia that is the epitomy of pork; nice road, but about twice as big as it needs to be for the traffic.
Where the Democrats still don't get it is the idea that anyone but their base is going to be energized by the idea of endless Congressional investigations that Nancy Pelosi told the Washington Post would start if her party took control of the House.
While she brought up a return to the Pay-Go policy of offsetting tax cuts with equal spending cuts, which many desire it isn't enough to draw enough new voters to the Democrats to win the election. Ethics reform, another area she touched on isn't the answer either; William Jefferson (D-La) and Joseph Cari, former DNC finance chief will be rolled out by the GOP as indicators of corruption in the other party. Besides, nobody in any poll has shown confidence in either party to end corruption. Most see any "ethics reform package" in Congress as lipstick for a pig.
Where does that leave us? With Congressional approval ratings of 33% for Democrats, and 35% for Republicans, unless someone on one side of the aisle comes up with some actual "silver bullet" bill, my guess is a historically low mid-term turn out, with little change.
The base for both parties will turn out to protect their turf, and rest of America will yawn, and ignore the election. We'll end up with at most half a dozen seats switching sides, and business as usual come January 2007.
Technorati Tags: Congress, politics, 2006, Election, Robert Byrd, Nancy Pelosi
The Republican's in Congress are still obsessing with Tom DeLay's tactic of buying every vote by approving every earmark; even though when asked what's the biggest problem in Congress, 39% say earmarks. Don't get the idea Democrats are immune from the earmarks, the way they get passed is one party ads one, and the other says "fine, we'll okay that if you okay this."
Robert Byrd (D-WVa), who is the king of pork, has even gone so far as to dare the President to veto the bacon laden Iraq/Katrina spending bill, which has grown by 20% due to earmarks. I've driven the 8 lane interstate in West Virginia that is the epitomy of pork; nice road, but about twice as big as it needs to be for the traffic.
Where the Democrats still don't get it is the idea that anyone but their base is going to be energized by the idea of endless Congressional investigations that Nancy Pelosi told the Washington Post would start if her party took control of the House.
While she brought up a return to the Pay-Go policy of offsetting tax cuts with equal spending cuts, which many desire it isn't enough to draw enough new voters to the Democrats to win the election. Ethics reform, another area she touched on isn't the answer either; William Jefferson (D-La) and Joseph Cari, former DNC finance chief will be rolled out by the GOP as indicators of corruption in the other party. Besides, nobody in any poll has shown confidence in either party to end corruption. Most see any "ethics reform package" in Congress as lipstick for a pig.
Where does that leave us? With Congressional approval ratings of 33% for Democrats, and 35% for Republicans, unless someone on one side of the aisle comes up with some actual "silver bullet" bill, my guess is a historically low mid-term turn out, with little change.
The base for both parties will turn out to protect their turf, and rest of America will yawn, and ignore the election. We'll end up with at most half a dozen seats switching sides, and business as usual come January 2007.
Technorati Tags: Congress, politics, 2006, Election, Robert Byrd, Nancy Pelosi
posted by Crazy Politico at 5:42 AM
4Comments:
Hope U R wrong, but we will see...
Tim, I think that with both parties approval ratings in the tank this could be the "election no one shows up for".
Thanks Shamalama... I think that the phrase was coined a little to long ago to get away with a trademark.
Yyyyyyyyyeah...
I'm pretty sure you called it, Bob.
possibly small gain one way or the other, but pretty much no significant change. At this point, I'm preety much wondering what's the advantage of either party? They're both full of politicians.
We have the choice of which loser or who can spend more. Looks like another collection of the worst choices. It's hard to pick from the worst. We don't seem to be allowed to have a real candidate with good ideas and the willingness to stand up for the constitutes.
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