Four months into the new Congressional session seems like a good opportunity to assess how well the new Democratic Congress has performed. Now admittedly I am a Democrat–and so perhaps a bit biased–but as those who have followed my posts or read my book know, I have never pulled any punches when it comes to analyzing my own party. In fact some of my earlier posts this year were somewhat skeptical about what this Congress could accomplish.
Suffice it say, this liberal Democrat is pleasantly surprised. In fact if I had to assign this Congress a grade so far, I would give them an A-. A major reason for this has come from two areas where the Democrats� performance in the past has been marginal at best.
First, unlike previous Democratic Congressional delegations, this group of Democrats has shown it has the spine to stand up to the White House and the Republicans. The results of last fall–which exceeded expectations–have given the Party a much-needed transfusion. You can visibly see the change on the television talk shows, where the Democrats being interviewed project confidence–even a bit of a swagger–that they seemed in danger of losing.
Meanwhile the GOP seems in disarray as it tries desperately to distance itself from an administration that unravels a little more each day. As Karl Rove and the rest of the White House crowd try to stay one step ahead of the prosecutors, the administration has lost all leverage over the GOP congressional delegation. Witness the Gonzales hearings where the Republicans were almost as hard on their own Attorney General as the Democrats. With the demise of Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert, the Republican congressional leadership seems to be trying to hold its delegation together with the equivalent of duct tape.
Partially as a result of this disarray and more because of their own shrewdness, the Democrats have avoided another mistake of the past–falling into GOP traps. The Party that was trapped into supporting the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind and tax cuts for the rich, has managed to steer clear of being maneuvered into corners that left it few options when such legislation hit the floor.
Somewhere Arthur Schlesinger must be smiling because in his book The Cycles of American History, he wrote about American history as a pendulum, swinging from conservative to liberal and back again. After 2004, pundits boldly predicted a GOP ascendancy. Two years later the situation has changed considerably. To see how much, let�s review the accomplishments of this Congress.
THE 100 HOURS: This package of legislation became the first priority for the Democrats. They passed everything on their list with time to spare. These included: ethics reform, raising the minimum wage, implementing the 9/11 Commissions’ recommendations, promoting stem cell research, cutting interest rates on student loans, requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, and repealing subsidies for Big Oil. All in all, not a bad list.
More impressive perhaps than this list–and less recognized–were the functions the 100 Hours Legislation performed for the Democrats. It showed that the Party, which two years ago had trouble keeping its own members together, could act in a unified, disciplined fashion. By pushing through the legislation in the manner they did the Democrats also showed the GOP they can play power politics if they have to.
IRAQ: As most of us recognize, this probably symbolizes the Party’s rebirth more than any other legislation. The resulting conference committee bill was far from perfect, but the Democrats have managed to keep their eyes on the ball. Like some others I underestimated the stupidity and the zealotry of the White House about the Iraq War. Instead of attacking the initial bill as a spending nightmare–which the old GOP would have done–the White House kept sticking to its guns about the war.
With the so-called surge now unraveling, the American people have come to recognize that this administration has no idea what it is doing in Iraq. It has no plan, no discernible objectives, no measure of when it has succeeded. Even the most badly run corporation can tell you what its targets are for each quarter, but this administration seems unable to provide the American people with information about measurable goals in Iraq whose equivalents are in any public company�s annual report.
The Iraq timetable is important, but its real value lies in showing that the administration has no plan. The timetable has reframed the entire Iraq debate. The American people now want to know when will our mission in Iraq be accomplished? The debate isn’t so much about particular dates as it is about objectives. That the administration has no answers has revealed the bankruptcy of their policies.
INVESTIGATIVE POWERS: Whether planned or not, the scandal over the firing of federal prosecutors has proven to be the perfect opening move in what many Democrats and Americans hope will be further investigations into this corrupt administration. The fired prosecutors provided much of the initial ammunition because once again the arrogance of the White House bungled the job by being so heavy-handed that those dismissed had to fight back. The battle over Executive Privilege will lay the bait for bigger fish yet to come, for if the administration digs in on this one, it will find it harder to do so further down the road.
The White House, of course, sees the situation differently, believing it needs to dig in its heels on what appears to many as a simple issue. Their reasoning seems to be: give in on this and we’ll have trouble when the more serious investigations begin. But in truth, the more they play the executive privilege card, the weaker it becomes–as Richard Nixon found out.
So, all in all an A- seems about right for this Congress, which thus far has not committed any major blunders. It is cause for celebration. Now the question becomes can we sustain it? To understand the answer, we need to go back and explore how the Democrats came to this position. That is the subject of the next post in this series.
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