You Own It -- You Broke It

While Nancy Pelosi has been working on her amiable friendship with George Bush, and Harry Reid has been making sure that a Senator endorsing, supporting and prone to introducing John McCain at his campaign stops keeps his Democratic Committee assignments, the Republicans have been fine-tuning one of their strategies for this fall.

Democrats control Congress, blame them for our problems.

This leaves the Democrats in just about the perfect position, perma-whining, with a strategy based on "everything I need to know about politics I learned in kindergarten." Roughly speaking, "I am rubber you are glue everything you say bounces off of me and sticks on you" has never proven to be an extremely effective communication system but give Chuck Schumer two thumbs up for the effort, nice hustle Chuck.

After the President said:

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Mr. Bush said his administration has made a series of proposals to shield the American people from the worst effects of the economic turndown and to address long-term energy needs. But, he said Congress has refused to act on the proposals from extending tax cuts to expanding America's oil refinery capacity.

Chuck fired back:

"The president and the White House have repeatedly ignored repeated shots across the bow of our economy: rising foreclosures, falling home prices, withering consumer confidence, and record oil company profits," Schumer said. "None of them are being addressed."

Stalemate.

But while Democrats refuse to acknowledge, act or even pretend that they are the majority on Capitol Hill, warming the hearts of millions of Party members like myself who worked our asses off in 2006 to make them the majority party, Republicans remember what it was like to be the majority up there and one simple fact:

The leadership on the Hill sets the legislative agenda and brings the bills to the floor that it wants.

Somewhere in Speaker Pelosi's office, a light bulb went off, a dull, small bulb but somewhere.

So, for example, a slim majority of the American people opposed the war like in this article from this morning:

The poll also indicates that support for the war in Iraq has never been lower. Thirty percent of those questioned favored the war while 68 percent opposed the conflict.

Speaker Pelosi could choose not to bring the $170 billion supplement to the supplement to the supplement and decide, let's spend the money on our veterans and troops who are here at home and need help, remember Walter Reed?

See how this works?

Or with gas prices rising out of control -- she could send a bill to the floor releasing oil from the strategic reserves and force Bush, if he wants, to veto it. Then she could send it again and again again, and Bush vetoes it, again and again and again. That way, someday, people get that he's at fault.

Instead, here's what I got from a Republican C4.

In a 2006 press release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that Democrats had a common sense plan to bring down skyrocketing fuel prices. The average price for a gallon of gas when Democrats took control of congress that November was $2.25 - a price that Pelosi and other liberals claimed amounted to "price gouging". The average price of a gallon of gas today is now up to a record $3.61, and in Speaker Pelosi's home Congressional district in the California bay area, the price tops $4 a gallon.

Despite the price going up $1.36 per gallon (that's 60%!) since Democrats took control of Congress 15 months ago, an out-of-touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leadership have still not released this so-called common sense plan to bring prices under control. Just last week in an interview with Larry King, Speaker Pelosi cited the national average as being only $2.56.

Rising fuel prices don't only raise the cost to fill our gas tanks, but they affect the prices we pay for almost every other product - including necessities like food, and Congress is doing nothing to alleviate the strain on Americans' wallets. Click here to see just how out of touch Speaker Pelosi and Congressional leaders are. Then call Speaker Pelosi's office at 202-225-0100 and remind her that America does need a common sense plan to bring gas prices under control.

See how this game works?

It's the new game in town and we have already proven one thing: we know how to lose it.

Comments

[Daisy1111]

Don't worry Obama will fix everything once he's President.

Right?

....Right?

Uh-oh.

[jfor]

The Democrats in Congress today are the biggest weenies ever, they have the majority and they have done nothing to stop the Bush juggernaut to destruction. Nancy Pelosi refuses to listen to the people and impeach Bush. Chuck Schumer backs Mukasey for Attorney General sticking it up the asses of every one of us. Rahm Emanuel can only make ridiculous baseball analogies on the floor wastiing our time and tax dollars. Where in the hell is Harry Reid and wtf has he done? nothing. On and on it goes, democratic senators and representatives alike not putting their careers on the line to save this country but rather feathering their nests and planning for their upcoming re election.

[amacd]

Dems sleazy funding plans for continuing war caught on tape:

Unfortunately the lying, sneaky, gutless and fully complicit Demorats are already scheming to fund this continuing corporatist Empire's immoral, illegal, and imperialist oil-war in Iraq (and Iran) not only until the end of the Bush regime, with another $108B, BUT ALSO well into the beginning of their own corporatist regime, with ANOTHER $70B ---- specifically for whichever lying warmonger the Demorats get to appoint as the next faux-Emperor for this very same 'corporatist Empire' hiding behind the facade of the two-party 'Vichy" American government!!!

Here's the sad story today (5/3), of the Demorats' scheming infamy, caught in the act by ABC News (hardly a left wing source):

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4773315

"The request comes as Democrats on Capitol Hill are struggling to move Bush's pending $108 billion request for the current year. Democratic leaders say they're likely to add the $70 billion for next year to that measure, which would allow them to avoid a politically painful vote on war funding in the heat of campaigning for the November elections."

Gutless, complicit pond-scum!!!

[Semaj51]

I believe that the current Democrates in Congress -- don't do anything, let the country go to pot, and then blame it all on the Republicans. Great politics, lousy leaders....

[NABNYC]

It is undisputable that the Democratic Party only wants to be in control so that they can get more bribes from corporate American than the Republicans get. It seems that the only purpose of gaining seats is to gain money and wealth for themselves, their relatives and spouses, their "campaigns," and their futures should they leave office. Because the one thing the Democrats have surely done since they took control of Congress in 2006 is to raise money, to solicit money, to suck up to the rich and the wealthy to get more money.

All the top leaders in the party are willing participants. I remember hearing Rahm Emanuel, when head of the house elections in 2006, told candidates that the party would not give them any support unless they raised several million dollars. What about the great candidate without rich friends? Oh yeah, and he also only wanted to support candidates who were in favor of the war in Iraq. That's the Democratic position, not the Republicans.

Didn't ever try to stop the war, to stop outsourcing, to stop the oil companies from raping the public, to stop the kidnapping torture and murder of people, to stop the Halliburton and related war industry from looting the treasury with Bush's consent, didn't try to stop the tax cuts for the rich.

We need a new party. The Democrats are just too rich for my blood.

[Rog49Thomas]

Three problems.

(1) Despite all the talk of "testicular fortitude", the missing organ from the Democratic Party is cojones.

(2) The Party is still shell shocked from the results of the turmoil in the late 60s. Then it boldly went where no man had gone before and was soundly defeated and labeled "loony leftist" "unpatriotic" etc. Hence triangulation.

(3) Also the Party is a pretty big tent and so there are many in the Congress who are conservative -- just as it was in the glory years of the party when it had southern segregationists, northern bigots, liberals, conservatives (remember Scoop Jackson), etc.

[falgiano]

sadly you are right on target. The Dem congress has been a huge disappointment to all of us who hoped for a way out of Iraq.

[Marrob]

Why are you voting for Obama? He nor Hillary have said the are going to pack up and come home if elected?

[Angelus2007]

This sort of worries me in November. The reasons for gas prices is not going to be solved by those republican suggestions. But the average american (myself included) don't understand or care to understand the way many of these things work. Things like gas prices and the value of the dollar are very confusing to most people. So that republican tactic is beautiful since Pelosi can't come back and easily explain why this is happening, and how it is the GOPs fault. They have to sit and take it. The leadership needs to be more aggresive.

In November the GOP will use examples like how gas has increased 60% since 2006, and most of the housing crisis was during the democrat controlled congress, job loss was during the democrat controlled congress. If we go into a recession (seems unliky with the GDP gain last quarter) it will have been during the democrat controlled congress. We like to say are you better off now than in 2000 and most people aren't. But the GOP will say are you better off today than in 2006? And in that case most people aren't either. And the drop for most people from 2006-2008 than 2000-2006. This can be a problem especially in congressional races.

[Soundofthunder]

Great idea! Pass a bill in the House along party lines, watch the Senate version die because they Democrats have a SLIM majority nowhere near the 60 votes required to get it on the floor, and if by some miracle both House and Senate pass a bill, Bush vetoes it and the bill dies anyway.

Still, it's all the Democrats fault for not kidnapping Republicans and water boarding them till they vote the interests of the American people vs. Big Oil.

SOT

[JimR]

Oh, boo-frickin' hoo. "Dem meanie Wepubwicans is bwocking ouw wegiswation." Are you serious with this crap? Republicans and Democrats in Congress have worked together on bills, even in this largely ineffective Congress. Orrin Hatch and other Republicans sided with Democrats on increased SCHIP funding for example. If the current Democratic "leadership" were halfway competent or creative, they could find common ground with more moderate Republicans and write bills that made incremental progress.

Bush's approval ratings are low. Republicans aren't eager to align themselves with him these days, but the Democrats aren't giving them any viable options (which helps explain why the approval ratings of Congress are even lower).

[Soundofthunder]

So it is incumbent upon the Democrats to find common ground on the issue of taxing or curtailing windfall profits for Big Oil. That's the problem. There is no common ground. Republicans think ExxonMobil netting over 40 BILLION dollars in one year is a function of a "free market" economy, the same "free market" that subsidizes Big Oil and has two competing gas stations down the street from me charging the same price for gas plus or minus a two cents, as if that is competition and not price fixing.

Like it or not, the Republicans DO align themselves with Bush by continuing to act on his behalf by not even trying to cooperate with the Democrats en masse. The dribble of Republicans that have sided with the Democrats are mostly those up for reelection in the Senate. They are scared rats afraid for their phony baloney jobs acting as shills for corporate America.

The situation, however, won't last. With a Democratic president and an even larger majority in Congress, the destructive tendencies of the modern GOP shall be marginalized. Wiped off the face of the Earth is preferable. But I'll settle for marginalized.

SOT

[bobtr900]

I'm not yet ready to count the Dems out and no longer a viable political party. The next election will tell us what we need to know. Remember that Karl Rove said he would abolish or destroy the Democratic Party(I don't remember his exact words), and he may have done just that. If the Dems win the presidency and win huge majorities in the congress such that they have the "Nuclear option" and still accomplish nothing then we will know that Rove and his cabal of neocons and right wing religions have destroyed the Democratic Party and turned America into a killer nation for religious and oil ideology.

Until then, I'm not yet ready to count Pelosi and the Dems out. We just haveto bepatient a little longer.
After all we have been waiting since the Pope(my religion) and Falwell put Reagan into the WH. Those two religions/religious groups have either destroyed America or they have not yet accomplished that task.

If they win we will also know that the world will be plunged into endless religious wars and endless oil wars. Torture, death and destruction will reign everywhere. Personally, I'll move to New Zealand until the two religions perpetrate Armageddon, sometime between now and 2014.

[dadw5boys]

WHY PASS ANY BILLS WHEN BUSH USES THE SIGNING STATEMENT TO VETO PART OF THE BILLS???????

[appleknocker]

It's the coalition of Republicans and Republicrats which controls Congress. Actual Democrats are an impotent fringe group.

[Oldchef]

This exposes some truth! Many of the Democrats in Congress are members of the DLC, and are Dems in Name Only. They are corporatists and support the Republican/US Chamber of Commerce agenda. Those from the democratic wing of the Democratic party are in the minority. Watch for Steny Hoyer to stab us in the back on telecom immunity.

[dadw5boys]

IF THEY WERE A TRUE MAJORITY INSTEAD OF ONLY OF NUMBERS REPUBLICANS WOULD NOT ABLE TO BLOCK LAWS AND BILLS!!!!!!!

[JimR]

Dem meanie bully Wepuwicans! WAHHHHHH!!!!!!

[Queenofthedamned]

Do you sincerely believe that your imitation of a three year old somehow gives more weight to your opinion? Just curious about this tactic.

[edpell]

A congressional seat cost 5 million dollars (at least here in New York's 20th). Until 100,000 voters (in each congressional district) each contribute $50 each (once every two years) we will get the candidates that the corporations pay for. Put your money where your mouth is.

[EnragedLiberal]

The huge rise in the cost of gas is mostly due to the devaluation of the dollar - prices have risen in Europe in a pretty reasonable fashion for the last 7 years. Of course we need to get out of Iraq. But we also need to collect enough taxes to fund whatever the government wants to spend our money on. It's not fair that the Social Security Trust Fund was gutted during the Bushit years to the tune of of 3 trillion dollars, that money was supposed to make SS solvent for many years. But worse than that was transferring future earnings from our children, minor and as yet unborn, to Corporate Fat Cats and other non-working scumbags. When did it suddenly make sense to tax non-earned income like Cap Gains and Dividends less than wages? If you give the worker enough money, he will buy enough consumer goods to stimulate the entire economy FROM THE GROUND UP and when he has enough crap to satisfy his simple needs, then he will save the remainder for retirement, providing both Capital AND Demand. This is somehow worse than a relatively small slice rich slobs buying treasury bonds from a struggling government for a guaranteed rate of investment return at the expense of everyone else?

[K-Dog76]

EnragedLib:
"other non-working scumbags." are you referring to Hollywood actors, or all those people we pay for on welfare?

[Queenofthedamned]

"all those people we pay for on welfare." That would be 1.32% of Americans.

[Oldchef]

Much truth here! If I run up huge debts with insufficient income, I have no confidence from the financial sector. it's no different for a country. The taxes forced on Bush 1 and the efforts to balance spending and income in the 90s gave us more prosperity. The country had enough revenue coming in to pay it's bills and the international financial community was supportive and US bonds were a good bet. When taxes were cut disproportionately and a war prosecuted with borrowed money, with not enough revenue coming in to pay the bills, confidence drops in the international community, and the dollar drops. When the ordinary people don't have enough money to buy goods, the economy goes to shit. The rich are not buying enough to make up the difference. A rich person buying a million dollar airplane doesn't make up for millions of people now unable to buy a new car or other consumer goods.

[MaxMarginal]

Good work. The fact that this congress hasn't forced Bush to wield his veto pen over in over in plain sight to make it clear whose interests he has in mind is the great, jellyfish-spined failure of this congress.

[dadw5boys]

WHY BOTHER HE WOULD ISSUE A SIGNING STATEMENT AND EFFECTIVLY VETO PART OF A BILL.

[K-Dog76]

dadw5,

a signing statement doesn't effectively veto a portion of a bill. A line item would, but that is not a presidential power ( alot of governers have it) All a signing statement is "here is your new law, although I'm not happy with it because..."