This is Team America, the new power brokers --Guardian

[Demeter]

This is what they think on the other side of the Atlantic:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,1945834,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12


Paul Harris in New York
Sunday November 12, 2006

A fresh wave of Democratic politicians is now settling down into real power for the first time since Bill Clinton's presidency. They have a broad agenda for change. (Drivel about Vilsack)...
And there are other emerging power players too. Chief among them is Rahm Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago, whose inspiring leadership kept the Democrats together in a bitter campaign and ushered in victory. Some in the party are whispering that his genius for organisation could see him become a Democratic version of Rove, the President's strategist. (Howard) Dean and Emanuel advocate radically different Democrat election strategies and both have loyal supporters who despise the others. And then, looming above it all, is the spectre of a Hillary Clinton run for the presidency. Even though the country as a whole expresses widespread scepticism about her chances of winning, she has already assembled a formidable campaign team. A Clinton run will give Republicans ample ammunition to use against the newly invigorated Democrats. It will also open deep chasms in her own party. It is not all sunshine and roses for Democrats in this new America. There are real obstacles ahead.

Rove's dream of creating a permanent Republican majority stretching into the future has ended. After a string of victories, his party and his machine have run into defeat. His style of campaigning politics has also hit a roadblock. Rove's genius was to energise the evangelical base and split the electorate with wedge issues such as abortion and gay marriage. It worked in 2002 and 2004. It did not work this time. Last week the Democrat share of the vote among evangelicals rose dramatically. Republican attempts to make gay marriage a central issue in the campaign fell flat. It was the same with immigration. A wave of brutal Republican attack adverts went unheeded by an American public simply desperate to change course in Iraq. 'The Republicans ran a campaign that was just against everything. Against abortion, against gays, against evolution. America has become tired of that message,' said Bowler. Perhaps most of all, it is Bush himself who is on the way out. His second-term domestic agenda of tax reform and social security changes was already stalled. His name is toxic, even to many Republicans. The President campaigned for 58 different Republican candidates. A stunning 29 of them lost.

New Democratic power brokers

Rahm Emanuel
The Chicago congressman masterminded the Democrats' House campaign.
Plans His skills at organisation and winning the election have some calling him a Democrat Karl Rove.

Hillary Clinton
The former First Lady and current New York Senator easily won re-election. Her next target is the White House.
Plans She's the frontrunner to win the party nomination for 2008.

Howard Dean
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee has a 50-state plan to turn all America blue.
Plans He wants a Democrat revolution to sweep the US and put the party in power in every region.

Nancy Pelosi
She is the fi rst woman speaker in Congress and represents liberal San Francisco.
Plans She will shape much of the Democrat policy push in the House.

Harry Reid
As leader of the Democrats in the upper chamber, he is now the most powerful man in the US Senate.
Plans He will lead the party in one of the most important parts of the US government.

Tom Vilsack
The governor of Iowa is a centrist from the American heartland, popular in his crucial home state.
Plans First off the Democratic mark, he has immediately declared his intentions to run for President.

IF RAHM IS OUR KARL ROVE, THEN HE RUNS A GREAT STEALTH CAMPAIGN, IS ALL I CAN SAY.

[lapfog_1]

1. I am really tired of the AIPAC/DLC cheering section.

Sorry, I don't like the DLC and I don't like Rahm.

This victory was as much or more associated with Dean and netroots, though a case can be make that we should be thanking KKKarl and the incompetent, immoral, and idiotic Republicans more than anyone else.

[tsuki]

2. If there is anything that I would not like to be known as, it is "The

New Karl Rove."

[classysassy]

3. Plame vs Rove

OK dems let the investagations begin #1 Rove for outing Plame, #2 Chaney for crimes againist humanity, # Bush for the theft of the whitehouse.

[classysassy]

4. good morning madam president

go get um nancy.