PrintSeptember 12, 2010
Clarice's Pieces: Democratic Party Death Panels
The past week began (for me) on a bright note and only got better. The New York Times announced that the Democrats have instituted internal death panels:
As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.
My friend Rick Ballard immediately pictured Democratic party leaders "breaking the fingers of those clutching the gunwales," and Nancy Pelosi called for a party redistributionist scheme in which members in safe districts were to redirect their money to vulnerable incumbents. I couldn't figure out whom she was talking about because with so many members of the Congressional Black Caucus under indictment or the object of ethics inquiries, who exactly was in a safe district? Still, there must be some. Pelosi indicated that they had $218 million in their campaign accounts and could help out their colleagues. Of course, those figures might have been compiled by the CBO at the same time as it calculated the savings to be achieved by ObamaCare. In any event, the Democrats had better use what they have, because it appears from all credible accounts that the PACs and employees of the nation's biggest businesses have finally awakened from their stupor and are diverting their campaign money spigot from the Democrats to the Republicans.
What only yesterday had been touted as the party's (and Obama's) "signature" achievements -- ObamaCare and the stimulus package -- were now obvious handicaps to reelection. Bill Clinton, who had earlier urged ObamaCare's passage to wavering congressmen, had the nerve to praise Rep. Mike McMahon for his independence and nonpartisanship in refusing to vote for that Act. Five Democrats who voted against ObamaCare were running on that fact. Not a single incumbent who voted for it was citing support for that "signature" achievement in a campaign ad.
As for the Stimulus throwaway, the party bosses directed candidates never to even use the word "stimulus" in their campaigns.
On the hustings, even Senator Feingold in fairly liberal Wisconsin was running from the president. You have to wonder if he hums "You'll Never Walk Alone" as Air Force One hits the tarmac on the campaign circuit. And Obama, who proudly called himself a "mutt" at his first press conference, is now complaining that interest groups "talk about me like a dog." There was more talk of sending Michelle out to campaign for party candidates, but I'd not contemplate seeing her in your district soon. If she does by chance show up demanding we give up more of our pie, ask her what she did with all our paella. Aside from her greedy self-enrichment, her static notion of economic wealth -- the pie is always the same size, and government's job is to cut it into smaller pieces so more may eat it, a throwback to outdated 1930s notions -- is unfortunately shared by her husband, to our misfortune.
More than the flagging polls herald the coming anti-Democrat November disaster.
The president was unable to fill a small rec center hall at Cuyahoga Community College, even with his advance guys dragooning idle students at the last moment. Political entrails readers like me look at this, the leaks about Michelle ignoring advice of advisers to go on the lavish Spanish trip and Obama brushing aside Rahm Emanuel's warnings about ObamaCare, as a sign that Barack and Michelle are facing a growing staff mutiny. In response, they've decided to take things in their own hands and ignore the advice of others.
What could be better?
I wrote to my friend Professor Charles Lipson at the University of Chicago about my thoughts, and he replied that he sees a larger structural problem for the Democrats.
They have no achievements to highlight on the housing mess. Public support for the Pelosi-Reid-Obama legislation has been declining steadily since the laws were passed. Pelosi said the laws needed to be passed so people could find out what is in them. They have and they hate them.The larger structural problem for the Democrats now is that the American people seem to be rejecting the core elements of liberal politics as ineffective and too costly. Those core elements as they have been advanced since FDR, are:Centralization of power in Washington, replacing state controls with federal bureaucracies,Keynesian stimulus packages,Redistribution beyond a basic safety net, andHigh marginal tax rates, if necessary, to pay for it all.
Like me, Professor Lipson believes the Republicans, once they win the House, must make their number-one agenda item the repeal of ObamaCare. Make the Democrats and Obama vote for it again or "turn tail."
As a closing note, the president has just appointed his 41st czar, a Carp Czar. One wonders if this isn't the level of his executive ability and whether or not he misspelled the title.
