After a shocker national election that has led to surprisingly few “here’s-the-way-the-story-happened” deconstructions, the Boston Globe has a must-read on the Dems’ two-year strategy for recovery and dominance. Starts back at the crack of ’05, when we were all shaking off our feelings of armageddon and saying, huh, what’s Bush doing with Social Security? …and when many of us, including yours truly, were fretting about those Dems in Congress, who didn’t seem to have anything to say about the issue. Well according to the article, that was the plan…and it worked.
So three cheers for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and let’s not forget Howard Dean. And, let it be said, kudos to the Globe for a nice piece of journalism!
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One point that the piece, either in the journalist’s own words or via quote, mistakenly makes is that the Democrats are now in a position to “govern.” Sorry, but our political system is presidential, not parliamentary. So the Democrats should not be taking responsibility for anything at this point in the game.
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The other thing, and this is picked up correctly by the piece, is that the Democrats have stayed within the rhetorical and political framework created by Rove / Bush / Cheney. They have not shown any ability to turn that framework on its head. Indeed, #1 on the Six for ’06 list is implementing all of the 9/11 commission’s recommendations. Thus far the “greatest” idea out of the commission is the creation of an intelligence super-czar, who turned out to be John Negroponte. Wow. And given that Rangel has taken repeal of the Bush tax cuts off the table, I wonder how the Dems intend to pay for all of the 9/11 commission initiatives. Are they going to get Halliburton to cough up the money from its no-bid contracts? In the words of those old Dean’s Home Furniture commercials, I doubt it.