When Drudge devotes his middle column to the collapse of Congress under Democrat control, you know the Dems are in trouble.
Citing four hit pieces in major papers, including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post (here and here), USA Today, and The Hill, the DrudgeReport does to Pelosi and Reid what no amount of Republican advertising could ever do; he proves that Democrats are unfit to run the government.
USA Today’s editorial eviscerates Democrats on the war. The liberal editors parrot Rush Limbaugh by emphasizing the obvious–Democrats want America to lose the war:
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, seem lost in a time warp. They could try to impose new benchmarks that acknowledge the military progress. Instead, too many seem unable or unwilling to admit that President Bush’s surge of 30,000 more troops has succeeded beyond their initial predictions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who in the spring declared the war lost, said last week that “the surge hasn’t accomplished its goals.” Anti-war Democrats remain fixated on tying war funding to a rapid troop withdrawal. Yet pulling the troops out precipitously threatens to squander the progress of recent months toward salvaging a decent outcome to the Iraq debacle.
The Washington Post, which campaigned openly for Democrats in 2006, shows its disappointment with the abject failure of America’s socialist party to achieve its collectivist ends:
Democrats are trying to prove that they can be an equal partner to Bush. But their first 11 months have been politically and legislatively brutal, with congressional approval ratings dropping this week to 32 percent, a notch below Bush’s 33 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Their support plummeted as the liberal base grew outraged over the Democratic inability to counter the president on any war issue, while moderates and centrists looking for bipartisan kitchen-table accomplishments instead saw partisan gridlock. The disputes have at times taken on starkly personal tones. In closed-door bicameral leadership meetings, Pelosi has questioned Reid’s intentions on issues such as war funding tied to troop withdrawal timelines and an alternative minimum tax fix that is fully funded by tax increase offsets, suggesting that his words have not always matched his actions.
My own dire predictions about impeachment and surrender now seem silly. I didn’t realize how utterly incompetent the Democrats are. When they seized power one year ago, the party of the left might well have claimed a mandate to impeach Bush or Cheney, cut off funding to the military, and repeal Bush’s tax cuts. They could have brought on a recession (or worse) with ridiculous global warming legislation.
Instead, the Democrats postured and posed.
For their part, though, the Republicans continue to demonstrate the spinelessness that cost them Congress in 2006. They need to strike while the iron’s hot by flooding the House and Senate with conservative legislation the panders to voters: tax cuts, more money for the troops, stronger border enforcement, and sensible ecology legislation, like drilling in Alaska and providing strong tax incentives for hydrogen cars and fuel cell retailing.
With a Democrat Presidential slate that grows weaker every day and a Democrat Congress coming apart at the seams, the GOP could, with the right leadership, seize 2008 as its revival year.
We just have to find the leader.