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Originally Posted by host
I am pessimistic about what will happen in the next two years. Democrats are hobbled by the mess that they've inherited....I've detailed that here:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...15#post2150715
...and for two other reasons:
the Bush admin. ignored congress when it's own party controlled it, and ignored many of the laws that it passed....I expect they will try to continue to do this....forcing impeachment and dem attempts for conviction in the senate....at least force the hand of the dems....and the country...through that process........in an intentional political strategy of polarization...don't forget....they have been described, for good reason, as the most partisan administration.....ever.
Rove will work tirelessly to contest every close election, especially in VA and in MT senate races. He will tirelessly discredit the integrity of the vote results of the opposition, in every close contest....see the report I posted about his efforts in Alabama to reverse election results in Alabama in 1994.
I predict that there will be no peace....no spirit of bi-partisanship, and a Rovian strategy to force dems from their current gameplan....best behavior, middle of the road, congressional leadership-in aniticipation-of-2008-presidential-ambitions.....into a warring counter-party to aggressive Bush admin. "business as usual" political and governance strategy. I see a strong possibility that the white house will act in an increasingly outrageous manner that will intentionally play to their ultra-conservative base, demonize the dems, and preserve as much of the "war time" unitarian executive centerpiece strategy, that we've all enjoyed observing....so far.
Count on it....what do you think that they see, that they have to lose....by acting this way? If you can put yourself in their place....the answer is....NOTHING! |
I see where you are coming from here, but I respectfully disagree. On your first point, that Bush didn't listen to his own party, this shift makes all the difference in the world. The Bush administrations's word was law from the Republican party for a very long time. Their message of rally behind the leaders (Repub Executive and Legislature) doesn't fly when the Congress won't defer to the President, especially within their own party. No Bush didn't listen to them because he didn't have to. A good number of them were elected/re-elected because of Bush and his message. Now we (should) have a in charge of at least one house of Congress that has no incentive to cowtow to Bush and behind them a clear American message supporting contention between Congress and the President.
As for your second reason, you are right. Rove will work tirelessly to make the most of these events for the Repubs. But even if all contests went this way the elections are still a Dem wash. Too many challenges will hurt the Repubs more than they'll help by down playing election results that, maybe, ought to be recounted by lumping them in with elections that are clear AND by brining on that sort of sore-loser attitude that plagued the Dems after 2000. No matter where you fall politically I doubt there is a person out there that thinks Karl Rove is a dummy. If I can see this, and you can see this, then he can see this. My belief is that man is already thinking about '08 and what's going to need to be done to win back the Senate (if it is lost) and retain the White House. He's thinking about legislative strategy to push the Dems leftwards again and most importantly he is thinking about how polish the Repub image back to it's past sheen.
What do they have to lose? Two words, "O Eight". There is absolutely no mandate in this election outside of clean up and re-order. Voters didn't ideologically shift they just wanted accountability that they felt the Republican Congress wasn't giving. If the Repubs allow themselves to be the victims here and don't acknowledge this mandate then God help them in '08 because they will literally have given The Presidency and, likely, even greater control of Congress to the Dems. The people of this country are ready for a centering, moderate change. If the Dems give that to them then awesome, but the Repubs still hold a lot of reins here. This is a message for them to clean up and if they do then they will very likely gain some power back in '08, but they still have so much to lose if they don't because the Senate will be close no matter who wins MT or VA and the Presidency will be on the line very soon. If you are a Repub you have to ship up or risk an '08 purely Democratic federal government with absolute legislating ability. And more than any candidate or social change, that is what the RNC fears most.