By The Prowler on 3.20.06 @ 12:08AM
Democrats know where they do and don't stand -- simultaneously.
Sen. Harry Reid told reporters last week that
it might be true that American voters don't know where Democrats
stand, but that they will know by November.
That may be a little too late for undecided voters, which is why
both House and Senate Democrats on the Democrat Congressional
Campaign Committee and the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee
keep insisting that they have a positive message.
On Thursday, both Democrat campaign committees began touting
their election-year plans and policies. Democrats in the Senate
intend to go the route of Sen. Russ Feingold,
pressing anti-war rhetoric at every turn.
On the House side, DCCC chairman Rahm Emanuel,
he of the ballet and Clinton Administration career track, says his
candidates will be attacking "rubber stamp Republicans" at a time
when Republicans in the House and Senate are anything but. Emanuel
thinks so much of the moniker that his staff says that he has
trademarked the name "Rubber Stamp Congress." We expect to see it
on coffee mugs and T-shirts across the nation.
Emanuel briefed reporters on the DCCC plans last week, and
called Republicans "rudderless" and "divided." He refused to
discuss his own party's confusion and division, for example on the
Feingold censure initiative and his caucus's plans to dump its
leadership in January 2007.
"We don't have to have specific policy ideas or positions," says
a DCCC staffer. "Rahm is taking a bigger picture approach to our
candidates. We'll give them themes to play off of, but we think the
best candidates will take those themes and create local issues and
initiatives that catch the attention of the specific voting block
they are trying to attract."
When asked about running against the war, the staffer said,
"That goes without saying, unless they are in a district that tends
to run counter to that notion."
So much for tough stands.
On the Senate side, Sen. Harry Reid and his
chairman of the DSCC, Sen. Chuck Schumer, continue
to press the anti-war rhetoric as key to their success. On Thursday
afternoon, Reid took heat from some members for his soft response
to Republicans who called Democrat bluffs on a censure vote against
President Bush for the NSA overseas terrorist monitoring
program.
According to sources with knowledge of the closed-door meeting,
Reid pushed back on his colleagues, telling them that it wasn't a
good idea to vote to censure anyone with ties to the NSA program,
particularly since there was a criminal investigation underway to
determine who had leaked the NSA program's specifics, and that
investigation could enmesh one or more of their own.
topics:
Trade, Harry Reid, NATO
