I believe that it is important neither to gloat nor to run ahead of ourselves. The Democratic Party will be the majority party in the House of Representatives and, unless Katherine Harris stops in Virginia on her way back to Florida to count votes, they will control the Senate as well; that much is true. Whether they can do anything - accomplish the so-called "100 hours" Rep. Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer have talked about - depends upon their willingness to wrestle with an Administration that, unlike the Clinton Administration, is known less for their political acumen and finesse than their ability for political bludgeoning. Clinton was successful partly because the Republicans preferred stomping loudly and carrying a really big stick to subtlety. He was able, time and again, to create the impression, real or not, that the Republicans were following his lead. I doubt Bush, Cheney, Rove, and the rest will be as adept; part of the reason for this doubt lies in the title above.
Experience of the past nearly six years pretty well proves that the Bush Administration has no interest in developing policy; Bush himself seems to have neither the intellectual curiosity, nor even the acumen necessary for the difficult and quite dull process of actually figuring out how to do something that pleases enough people to create a constituency to keep it going. They enjoy power; they are constitutionally incapable of doing anything with it other than ensuring they continue to hold onto that power.
One of the oft-repeated comments one hears is that the American people are tired of gridlock and want congress to actually accomplish something. Through a combination of fear and apathy, the Republican Congress these past two years has accomplished nothing of note, and both the party leadership in Congress and the White House have made sure that it was so because to legislate would, perhaps, create a situation that could not be controlled for political benefit for the White House. Such a strategy - I call it nihilism because the Latin "nihil" means "nothing", what the leaders in Congress and the White House sought to achieve and actually accomplished - is now seen to be self-defeating. I will wager (although not predict) that Rove's time in the White House can be numbered in months if not weeks as the party begins to realize that the destruction of the Republican Party is closing in.
This is all good, not for the Democratic Party, but for the United States, Republicans included. I want a strong, healthy, vital Republican Party because it keeps the political system healthy to have debate and even violent disagreement. By suppressing dissent within the legislative branch itself, the nihilists achieved not even their goal of holding on to power. I prefer the nuts and bolts of policy to the horse-race of politics because something is always preferrable to nothing.
Virtual Tin Cup
