The first Democrat-controlled Congressional session in a decade dragged their sorry asses out of town last night. There may not have been any tucked tails – but their tails were definitely dragging. But the team of Jonathan Weisman and Paul Kane of the Washington Post seem to have been standing on their route home and cheering;
The first Democratic-led Congress in a dozen years limped out of Washington last night with a lengthy list of accomplishments, from the first increase in fuel-efficiency standards in a generation to the first minimum-wage hike in a decade.
Um, guys – ALL they accomplished was new CAFE standards and a minimum wage hike. That’s not a “lengthy list” – you did it in one sentence. But I guess you were just doing a fair imitation of Nancy Pelosi;
On Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday: “Nobody is more disappointed with the fact that we couldn’t change that than I am.” But Pelosi was not about to accept Republican assertions that her first year as speaker has been unsuccessful, saying: “Almost everything we’ve done has been historic.”
Yup, historically dreary. They spent the entire year, up until a few weeks ago, trying to end the Iraq War (while our troops were doing a fine job of that without Congress’ help) and expanding Child Health Insurance Program to people who didn’t need Congress to pay for their health insurance.
Compare Nancy’s comments with S.A. Miller’s report in the Washington Times on Democrats’ political base reaction to their first year;
“They were too ready to capitulate in anticipation of a fight,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The expectation was that they would try just a bit harder.”
She chided top Democrats on Capitol Hill — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada — for shrinking from fights over government eavesdropping on terrorism suspects, closing Guantanamo Bay prison camp and a crackdown on torture of terrorism detainees.
Environmentalists chastised them for embracing a watered-down energy bill and modest measures on global warming.
“On the basis of getting things done, it’s pretty hard to suggest that they have been a big success,” said Chris Miller, director of Greenpeace’s global warming campaign.
He did credit Mrs. Pelosi for “setting a high bar” for environmental legislation, even if she failed to clear it.
Pretty different view of “success” and “historic”, huh?
On their way out of town, Democrats were still talking about the Iraq War (From the WaPo story linked above);
Some senior Democrats have grown so distraught that they do not expect any significant change in Iraq policy unless a Democrat wins the White House in 2008. “It’s unfortunate that we may have to wait till the elections,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) said yesterday.
Yeah, if the troops don’t end it before that, huh? Funny how all year Democrats have been saying that there’s only a political solution for ending that war, and all this time they weren’t talking about an Iraqi political solution, but themeselves.
Empty-headed Chuckie Schumer, as always the Democrats’ chief moron, decided that the best campaign slogan had no ideas attached to it (from the WaPo story linked above);
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) conceded that it is time for Democrats to forget about trumpeting accomplishments that voters will never give them credit for — and time to change the message to a starkly political one: If you want change, elect more Democrats.
Forget about “trumpeting” those non-existent accomplishments and promise what Democrats have been promising for 70 years – change. The change that never comes. They controlled both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue from ’93 to ’94 and what changed? A huge tax increase across the board – that’s it.
The Democrats don’t want to change anything – all they want is issues that can give them more power. Their ideas won’t make anything better – their ideas just sound good.
