NYT: Democrats Find Some Traction on Capitol Hill

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — With President Bush on the defensive over his handling of postwar Iraq, Democrats on Capitol Hill have been scoring a few victories in the Republican-controlled Congress, gaining a measure of political momentum that they hope will grow more pronounced as the 2004 elections draw nearer.

(snip)

Political analysts and Democrats say it is no coincidence that the recent gains on overtime and student aid came in the same week that President Bush announced he was requesting $87 billion for postwar Iraq, an announcement followed by a drop in Mr. Bush's approval rating. Some say the numbers have emboldened Democrats and made Republicans, especially those up for re-election, more likely to break ranks with their party and the president.

"The president is losing some of his popularity," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic whip. Of Republicans, Mr. Reid said: "They no longer feel that he can be a dictator. They no longer feel that he is King George. He is President George now."

(snip)

But some scholars and political strategists, both Democrat and Republican, say Democrats have succeeded in taking advantage of the limited muscle they have. News from Iraq, combined with the increasing federal deficit, high unemployment and recent polls on Mr. Bush "have caused Republicans to get a little wobbly," one Republican strategist said.

He added, "It feels like the wheels are starting to fall off a little."


more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/09/13/politics/13DEMS.html?hp

[diplomats]

1. This is a great quote:

He added, "It feels like the wheels are starting to fall off a little."
I was hoping once Bush started losing his Teflon and was seen as vulnerable the Dems would find their groove. They need to keep pushing it and keep the Big Mo.

Thanks for posting this!

[Concinnity]

2. For all his gifts, it seems that the 'golden boy' is losing his way

George W. Bush seemed to have it all once upon a time. With his folksy demeanor and his rugged West Texas cowboy good looks coupled with achievements that made him possibly the most qualified man ever to run for president....two Ivy League degrees, self-made millionaire in two distinct businesses, wildly popular 2-term governor of the most diverse and 2nd most populous state where he won reelection with an astounding 70% of the vote......add that to his improbable defeat of a heavily favored incumbent vice president riding a fabulous economy.....incredibly it seems that the golden boy has fallen off his horse. He's gotten us into this Iraqi quagmire and he just doesn't seem to know how to get out of it. This operation lacked planning, follow through and discipline....the very things W has been known for in his public life....Some people are now wondering if W has lost his soul along the way. Something happened. What looked like a certain victory in 2004 now appears very much up in the air. I guess I am like a lot of you wondering just what happened.

[diplomats]

4. It's called hubris

eom

[Skittles]

5. HEY CONCINNITY, PUT THE PIPE DOWN

"achievements that made him possibly the most qualified man ever to run for president"

You are f***ing HALLUCINATING.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

13. you are RIDICULOUS

I live in Texas and know all about Dubya's "achievements" - how they were all HANDED to him. For example, he gets accepted into Yale after the Universitiy of Texas refused him. Tell me how he did that without daddy pulling strings. Tell me how he ditched out of his Guard commitment without going to jail. Dear God woman, PULL YOUR HEAD OUT. Better yet, get the f*** out of here.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[grytpype]

18. HEY SKITTLES, YOU PUT THE PIPE DOWN BIATCH!

This all just proves the value of a Harvard MBA!

[calimary]

54. uh... a Harvard MBA that didn't amount to much.

His Harvard MBA that I'm not completely convinced he really earned (judging by the grades I've seen on his various report cards), and the three successive oil companies he drove right into a ditch (Spectrum 7, Arbusto and Harken, anyone?). In fact, I'm wondering if having a Harvard MBA has lost some of its luster.

Skittles, whatever's in your pipe has left you more clear-eyed and sharp-minded than many.

[alcuno]

7. Arrogance.

I do find your description of * to be totally over the top and way off the mark; that may account for the difference between perception and reality. I would describe him as......a man of unremarkable academic distinction achieved only through the efforts of a powerful father....a man who lived his life completely lacking in curiosity about a world in which he would later represent the most powerful nation in existence...an opportunist whose business dealings and later political career were made through the interventions of those attempting to curry favor with the vice-president and then president...a man who lost the popular vote in a national election but gained the presidency through a Supreme Court decision. In other words, all hat and no cattle

Is it any wonder he is having problems now?

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

14. CLINTON WAS A SELF-MADE MAN

not some f***ing spoiled frat boy. And may I remind you HE WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT TWICE, not installed by his daddy's friends on the Supreme Court.

[prolesunited]

15. Yes, Clinton drools

and Bush rules. It's all perfectly clear to me now.

Bush hasn't fallen. He is the same pampered, arrogant, frat boy asshole that he's always been. He's just screwing everyone on a grander scale now. Apparently, it just became evident to you. We knew it since he and his cohorts stole the election in Florida.

[Skittles]

17. lol..........................proles

"he's just screwing everyone on a grander scale now". You are SO good at telling it like it is. :D

[prolesunited]

19. Thank you!

Coming from you that is high praise indeed. :D

[alcuno]

16. You have described the difference between someone who

had to work for his achievements and someone who had them handed to him. The great irony of GW is the fact that he was given all the tools in life with which to succeed and managed to distinguish himself as a worldclass slacker.

[Cha]

21. bush is "impressing" no one except people who fall for that

Shit.

[never cry wolf]

23. what a joke

bush barely got passing grades in college and did not qualify for yale, he only got in cuz his daddy and grandpappy were alums, he was best known on campus for being an all out party animal, he failed at 3 businesses only to be bailed out by his daddys pals each time, he failed miserably as governor of texas, which is now very broke, has the worst environmental record in the nation and damn near the worst schools. clinton was a rhodes scholar, for chrissakes, do you have any fucking idea how prestigious that is??

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[prolesunited]

9. Sounds like

you truly love and admire that "golden boy." You sure you're not Bush's PR flak? Would you like us to dissect your plaudits one by one?

[Cha]

11. Sorry but bush has always been ugly to me ...with that scrooge

little mouth of his and his beady eyes and his ugly nose and heil hitler kinda attitude.

[stevedeshazer]

39. In 1999

My mom took one look at W and said, "he's just a beady-eyed little shit." She's 75 now, and has proved to be right.

[CheshireCat]

50. Well

my 76 year old mom told one look at Georgie Boy and said he reminded her of her retarded cousin named Junior.

She has super instincts!

[fabius]

25. I was actually a bit surprised he's done so poorly

Not that I ever believed all the media fluff about the crown prince, but it did seem that he would have a bunch of seasoned professionals in the foreign policy area and the Shrub-Rove team was reputed to be very sharp politically.

In fact after 9-11 I was prepared to support him and would probably still if he hadn't been such a greedy opportunist and pretended he had some kind of real mandate based on a sub-plurality selection.

And the gross incompetence of the diplomacy and foreign policy in the Iraq war is simply beyond belief. I guess I was expecting Bush I redux. Say what you will, Bush I and Baker got everybody else to pay for their war. Compared to this the Shrub-Condi-Rummy axis is unbelievably inept. In any other profession they would have been fired long ago.

Given the national and international goodwill after 9-11 I just find it incredible that a supposedly astute politician would wilfully throw it all away. Shrub is his own worst enemy. Or maybe Karl Rove is...

BTW Welcome to DU Concinnity. Smoke whatever you want. In my opinion you're welcome if you now see that the emperor has no clothes, no matter how long it took you to see it.

[juajen]

26. Amazing

When is the man you described planning on running for President? I think you took a left turn instead of right. Check your directions.

[Guaranteed]

30. Hey Concinnity...there's no room for...

...moderate pespective on this here board. ;)

[MoonRiver]

31. All Bush has ever been good at is lying, cheating and clawing his

way to the top. Oh, I almost forgot his most important asset: having been born to powerful and corrupt parents.

Never fear, despite being unpopular here and despised by the rest of the world, he'll find some way to steal whatever he wants from the American people, including our constitutional right to vote. :mad:

[Born Free]

28. The DLC will help the bush team straighten the wheels

Don't worry, the DLC will jump in to rescue the bush team, they love helping him up and cleaning him so he can start throwing mud on them again.

[grytpype]

3. "They no longer feel that he is King George. He is President George now."

I love it! Best quote yet!

[Eloriel]

6. This makes me so angry

I haven't read the article and probably won't. But these stoooopid people in Congress don't know the first thing about power and negotiating.

First rule of negotiating: YOU HAVE AS MUCH POWER AS YOU THINK YOU HAVE.

Second rule: THEY have as much power as you think they have.

Sheesh! They were handed the PERFECT opportunity to completely delegitimize this would-be-dictator from the get-go and patently refused. Had they stood up WITH the CBC back in December 2000, it would have put him on notice that half the country thought his Presidency illegitimate, which it was.

They should have followed that up with registering some kind of protests with the Supreme Court and then fighting absolutely everything he and his thugs tried to do after Jan. 20, 2001.

And no, standing with the CBC would not have provided a different result. But it WOULD have told Bush, Americans and the world that, as I said, half the country knew he was illegitimately put in office. It would have SEVERELY crimped his style.

They could have damaged his "popularity" from the beginning.

And what the hell was it about letting Cheney get away with no investigation re 9-11?? Jesus H. Christ.

I could go on.

You DON'T roll over for bullies. You FACE ThEM DOWN. You start the minute they go the least bit out of line and you keep doing it until they respect you and stop even trying to bully you. Clinton never did that, and it's a shame. Gore never did that, and suffered the consequences (and yes, he actually won including FL).

Aaargh. These people are too dumb and weak to be in Congress.

Eloriel

[Cha]

10. I know! Our Dems ...some of them aren't fighters even with the

Truth on our side!

[jiacinto]

22. I disagree on one point

You write:

"
And no, standing with the CBC would not have provided a different result. But it WOULD have told Bush, Americans and the world that, as I said, half the country knew he was illegitimately put in office. It would have SEVERELY crimped his style. "

Unfortunately, Eloriel, that is not how it would have played out. In fact the complete opposite would have taken place. The media would have savaged Gore for "being a sore loser". The media would have portrayed Bush as the "victim" and Gore as the one "trying to engineer the coup". Gore would have looked bad and the Democratic Party would have too. The media would have portayed Bush in the most sympathetic light while making Gore look like the villan. And America would have sympathized with Bush, as the increasingly right wing media would presented the story with that point of view.

Otherwise I do agree that they should have fought Bush every step of the way after that.

[lazarus]

27. Gosh, no!

The media would have savaged Gore as a sore loser? Whew! Glad we dodged that bullet!

</sarcasm>

[jiacinto]

29. Do you honestly think it wouldn't have played out that way?

I think that had Gore dragged it out farther it would not have played to his favor.

[Doug Decker]

32. Yeah, Gore got off easy...

HAVING THE PRESIDENCY STOLEN is not nearly enough. (sarcasm off)

[lazarus]

33. do you honestly think it didn't?

He was portrayed as a sore loser by the media anyway. So what would have been the difference? Maybe the Dems would have gotten a little spine 3 years ago, and things wouldn't be quite so bad.

[jiacinto]

34. I disagree

They would have been tarnished as "the ones who tried to engineer a coup". I want to agree with you, Lazarus, but I can't here. And it would have been a lose-lose proposition for Gore to fight on after 12/12/00.

[Doug Decker]

35. We fight the lies with the truth...

After what * has done to this country and to our men and women dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, you think it is more important for Gore to be popular with people who already hate him?

[Doug Decker]

37. It seems to me, that is why we are here, at DU, to get as much...

information as possible and then make our own informed decision.

The right will always lie because that is the only way they can win, if they keep their current strategy of anti-people, pro-corporation.

Back to the 2000 Election, we can't rewrite history, remember:

A cabal of right wing thugs stormed the Made Country elections office and intimidated the people inside.

Gore won the majority of the VOTES (across the nation) in the election. Gore would have won the vote in Florida, but the Supreme Court stopped the counting. Scalia said in his argument the action to stop the counting was taken to "protect the petitioner (GWBush)".

The election was stolen. How it is it possibly better to just ignore that fact and "get over it"? I wish someone could tell me because I really want to understand.

See, everything this country means and stands for was subverted that day, how is this any better than pissing off Ted Olson and James Baker?

[Doug Decker]

42. Aren't some things just too important to surrender...

like voting?

Isn't that what our country was built on?

If you're going to pick your battles, isn't this one that matters? One you can't afford to lose?

[lazarus]

53. we still are

considered the ones who tried to engineer a coup. How have you missed that?

[Doug Decker]

56. If only you could explain the logic behind...

your post. I think people want to understand where that sort of thought is coming from.

Thanks.

[calimary]

55. I'm afraid you're right. The template for a right-wing-slanted media

was CERTAINLY there.

I knew we were in trouble when that shit said his MOST telling statement right after the big breakfast on Capitol Hill following the innauguration. Anybody remember when he stepped up to the mikes and said "it'd be a whole lot easier if this were a dictatorship and I was the dictator."

Yes, he actually said that. And nobody batted an eyelash about it. The press didn't jump on it. None of the Dems spoke up then, or afterwards. Nobody called him on it or questioned him or later commented or wrote op/ed pieces about how surprisingly arrogant and tasteless that was.

NOBODY SAID PEEP! I was completely stunned. Floored. It set alarm bells ringing in my brain like nobody's business. And I saw nobody else reacting - AT ALL!!!

Unfortunately they would have continued jumping all over Gore, and more and more of the country would have bought into it. They were certainly softened up enough by then to do so. Look how long it's taken for even a few of them to start indicating they're waking up.

[Q]

45. Is this the 'moderate' strategy...allow the media to dictate politics?

- It's simply amazing how many so-called Dems don't want to rock the boat for fear of the media. Get a friggin clue: they'll attack Dems no matter what they do...so they might as well fight the good fight.

- The corporate media has the Democratic party cowed into being TOO careful about 'what they say and do'.

[Doug Decker]

46. It's the hallucinating strategery...

get that word right.

:evilgrin:

[CatWoman]

36. *slowly backs out of this thread*

:D

[Doug Decker]

38. I'm sorry, but do you see my point...

or am I crazy (sitting here with 117 cats crawling all over me and the PC and the house?).

[CatWoman]

40. I wasn't responding to you, DD

I took one look at all the commotion and decided to haul ass :D

[Doug Decker]

41. That's cool!

:hi:

Dean is on CSPAN west coast giving a speech now! He is doing great!

[CatWoman]

51. no, you are NOT crazy

the more kitties, the better :D

:hi:

[Starpass]

43. "the wheels are starting to fall off a little"----------------------------

No---somebody threw a bomb in the car and the wheels, the roof, the seats and the engine are somewhere orbiting the Earth as we speak!!! Man, it's so hard for so many idiots to just start saying he's in deep shit and the American people are sick of him (we have to whisper and kinda, kinda, kinda hint at it---don't they read!!!).

[Doug Decker]

44. We're on the 101 with just the axles and the seats of the car...

and we hit 90 miles per a while ago.

How much worse than stealing the election? Is murder worse, or treason?

[goforit]

47. And to think the Dems are climbing WITHOUT the MEDIA!!!!

Screw the neo-nazi media!!!!!

[Doug Decker]

48. I used to like CNN...

and I remember the excellent coverage of the Waco tragedy and the Columbine Shooting.

Utter garbage now. <INSERT SPORTS STAR> has been accused of _________ .

This is the trivializing of real news, for ratings and profits, by men who are multi-millionaires (billionaires?)

I was hoping to get a reply to my point about Gore.

[Doug Decker]

49. Why won't this post go away?..

I hope it doesn't prove embarrassing to anyone. :spank:

Why, oh, why won't this post go away. It keeps jumping up to the top.

[Doug Decker]

52. Just in case anyone missed it...

We should archive this one.

[Doug Decker]

57. Just for fun...

:kick: