Hillary will save GOP: toe-sucker
DICK MORRIS Ultra-liberals rise on moderate wings
The results of the ’06 election are in. The left wing of the
Democratic Party has taken over Congress. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-
Calif.) is the Speaker. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is the new
chairman of the Ways and Means panel. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is
majority leader, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) runs the
Environment Committee. The left is empowered.
But how did it achieve these majorities? It did so lifted by the
wings of moderate, centrist Democrats who mastered their GOP
opponents throughout the country. It was not liberals who defeated
Republican incumbents in the House and Senate. It was moderates,
future members of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).
The only reason Pelosi is Speaker is that a fresh crop of moderate
Democrats ousted Republican incumbents in the House. A majority of
these new congressmen and -women have announced their intention to
join the DLC.
It is only because pro-lifer Bob Casey beat Sen. Rick Santorum (R-
Pa.), former Reagan Navy Secretary Jim Webb defeated Sen. George
Allen (R-Va.), and gun-control opponent Jon Tester triumphed in
Montana that Harry Reid is the new Senate majority leader.
Moveon.org, party chairman Howard Dean, and the blogger left had
nothing to do with the ’06 victory. Democrats who study the election
results carefully will reaffirm the lessons learned by the defeat of
Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis — the American people will not
elect liberal Democrats, but will turn to moderates.
The irony is that the expressed will of the American people has been
so radically ignored in the shaping of the 110th Congress. The fact
is that the elevation of Nancy Pelosi to the speakership is no more a
legitimate expression of the voters’ will than would be the retention
of Dennis Hastert. The seniority system, rigidly applied by Pelosi in
violation of the spirit of the Gingrich reforms of 1994, has ordained
that a liberal establishment will run Congress, whatever the voters say.
Is there anyone who will sanely maintain that Rangel represents the
broad middle of American views on tax reform, or that Levin speaks
for most Americans on national security? All that has happened is
that the ranking members have become the chairmen, regardless of
their views or qualifications. It is a gesture of homage to seniority
that would have the approval of the segregationists that used to run
Congress by applying the same ground rules. Back then, no matter how
loudly voters demanded integration and an end to racism, the
Democratic majority kept apartheid firmly in place. The distortion of
the electorate’s will taking place now on Capitol Hill is no more
extreme.
Will the Democrats pay for their imperial overreach? Not if, despite
taking the majority, they stay in opposition, use their power to
oppose the Bush administration, investigate it endlessly, and
continue the negative criticism that embodied their ’06 campaign.
But such is not the nature of the Democratic Party. Power will likely
go to their heads. Their constituencies will not be appeased by mere
partisan criticism of Bush. Had the Democrats been fortunate enough
to win only the House, they could have hidden behind the wall of
Senate obstructionism and pleaded their inability to pass
legislation. But having won both, they have no excuse but to pass
legislation that will reflect the will of their issue-group masters
and expose the differences between the views of their party and those
of the voters.
Bush will still be president, so their output will face a daunting
succession of presidential vetoes. So will there be a backlash? No.
There will only be the beginning of a backlash. Bush’s likely
intransigence on Iraq, global warming, and a host of other issues
will shield the Democrats from the political consequences of their
own legislative initiatives.
Rather, we have to see 2007 and 2008 as the beginnings of a massive
Republican revival. Only when the likes of Hillary Clinton take the
White House in 2008 — still my bet — will the resurgence be fully
evident. Just as she saved the GOP in 1994, she’ll repeat the favor
in 2010 and 2012.
Morris and McGann, husband and wife, have written several books
together, including Rewriting History, a rebuttal to Living History
by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).