Donkey rising: Dems know what time it is

Some say the fact that the spending bill funding military operations in Iraq passed - without the support of the majority — shows Democrats in Congress aren’t unified, and Nancy Pelosi is a Speaker who can’t control her caucus. In the past, that may have been true, but the 110th Congress is very different from any Congress in recent memory. The leadership in this Congress isn’t legislating for a 51 percent majority while ignoring 49 percent of “My Fellow Americans.” The Democratic leadership of the 110th Congress is legislating from the center, making the Republican party irrelevant in the process.

For six years, Republicans had unapologetically misused their congressional majority. They shut Democrats out of the process while rubber-stamping the reckless foreign policy and negligent domestic policies (remember New Orleans? It’s still not rebuilt) of a cowboy president who, if you’ll forgive my mixing metaphors, is off the reservation. They over-reached in passing legislation so a Florida judge could stop the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, and under-reached when Rep. Mark Foley of Florida was preying on teenage boys serving as congressional pages.

Since January, the Democratic majority has behaved as advertised: They fulfilled their “six for ‘06” campaign promises and they fought so hard on military funding they forced the Commander-in-Chief to veto a bill to fund troops in harm’s way. Further negotiation didn’t lead to a bill which would end military operations in Iraq, but it accomplished two things: It got the president on the record saying we should see results from his “surge” tactic by September, and, because Democratic leaders negotiated with the White House directly, it marginalized the Republicans.

So when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “I think that the handwriting is on the wall and that we are going in a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it,” he was mistaken. The president has had every opportunity to “lead” in a different direction and hasn’t taken it. The Democratic majority will be leading the way, followed by a kicking and screaming president, with Congressional Republicans reluctantly dragging behind.

For Republicans, party unity is and always will be the issue and the problem, as they see it, is too many RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only). Any “true” Republican candidate must be opposed to leaving Iraq, reproductive freedom, equal rights for samesex couples, gun control and opposed to forgiving undocumented immigrants for the unspeakable crime of crossing the current, post-1848 border illegally in order to work. The Republican party in 2007 is almost totally defined by the people whose rights it believes should be denied.

By contrast, the Democratic Party is becoming the party of the “big tent.” From the “old line coalition” to the “new left coalition,” there is room for everyone from progressives to “yellow dogs” to “blue dogs” to Libertarians. Even on its signature issue — military operations in Iraq — the voices of those wanting to “get out now” are no more or less important than the voices of those who favor a more cautious approach to re-deployment. Of the 226 Democratic members of the House of Representatives, almost two out of three voted against the funding bill, including the Speaker, while 194 of 196 Republicans voted in favor. In the Senate, four out of five Democrats rejected the measure (which 43 of 45 Republicans supported).

This shows the Democratically controlled 110th Congress did something three previous Congresses would never have done: Brought a bill to the floor for a vote knowing it didn’t have the support of a majority of the majority. Nobody was called a “DINO” (Democrat In Name Only) for their “yes” vote. No Democrat was accused of not supporting the troops for voting “no.” The Democrats in Congress simply did their job: They used their majority status to pass the bill they were elected to pass (which the president vetoed), they negotiated a bill the president would sign, then they allowed members to vote their consciences.

Democrats are one giant step closer to reducing our military footprint in Iraq, picking up seats and keeping control of Congress. It’s Karl Rove’s dream turned into a nightmare — a permanent Congressional majority and the inside track to White House for the next 16 years, but for the Democratic party.