The First 100 50 Hours
The Democrats have now officially finished their “First 100 Hours” legislation barrage, in less than half the promised time. The initiative was completed when the Democratic-controlled House passed an Energy bill with a 264-163 majority, not enough to override a presidential veto. The bill passed by the house would raise $14 billion in revenue over 10 years by forcing oil companies to pay the tiny, meager royalties they are supposed to for drilling for oil on public lands, and rolls back tax breaks that save the oil companies billions even as their profits soar to ludicrous highs. Unsurprisingly, the bill is supported by a majority of Americans, though at 61% it is one of the less-popular items on the Democrats’ agenda.
According to a new survey, the most popular item in the 100-Hours lineup was the minimum wage hike (81%), followed closely by the Medicare prescription drug bill (80%) and the student load rate cut (79%).
Other good news for Democratic lawmakers: Although the approval rating for Democrats in Congress hasn’t changed too much, at 42% they are more popular than Bush right now, and besides, Congress always polls very low. But Pelosi has reason to be happy: her positives have risen from 27% to 34% over the past two weeks, and only 21% regard her unfavorably (compared to Newt Gingrich, who at this time in his leadership had 26% positive and 39% negative). So much for the conservative claims that Pelosi is the most-hated politician in Washington. The only reason her positives are only a hair below Bush’s is because 41% still haven’t heard much about her. Another way to look at it is that Bush’s negatives are triple what Pelosi’s are.
The only damper on the celebration: the Senate. Even though Democrats control the Senate, they do so by a razor-thin margin, and even though there is surprising Republican support for several of the 100-Hours measures, Republicans in the Senate may yet be able to filibuster most if not all of them, saving Bush the embarrassment of whipping out his promised and virtually-unused veto pen for bills that have overwhelming public support. Of course, Senate Republicans will have to deal with the embarrassment of filibustering after having for so many years claimed that it was a vile, despicable act.
The Democrats, in the meantime, are not embarrassed at all about denying Republican lawmakers from saturating the 100-Hours legislation with poison pills by denying them the ability to amend the legislation before a vote. For all their whining about being “treated fairly,” after so many years of crushing the Democrats, having to put up with the same treatment for just a few weeks is chicken feed. If the Democrats go for the next decade or so in the same fashion, then the Republicans can start saying something, but frankly, the Democrats just don’t have as much ‘nasty’ in them as Republicans do, which is a good thing and a bad thing; Republicans will get far better treatment from the Dems than the Dems got from them. Not that this will stop the Republicans from continuing their whining, of course.
Polosi has simply been impressive to me. Fantastic job Nancy. I hope she holds the job as long as Tip O’Neil did.
I wonder just how much fillibustering the Republicans can do to such popular legislation.
Can they fillibuster, say student loan legislation, a 79% popularity rating only to deny votes on even more popular legislation? What if they did it for 2 years? Wouldn’t that tell everyone that the Republicans represent only a small, very rich, and very corporate, set of interests? Would that garner majorities in elections?
I think not.
The Republicans have really painted themselves into a nice little corner. Obstructionist to the peoples will on legislation, almost no ideological fig leaf to hide behind, and being stuck with the albutross of throwing the nation into an expensive unnecessary war that promises the nation an avalanche of problems no matter what it does to get out of.
Furthermore, Bush may think that he can make Iraq the next presidents problem, but two years of the kind of politics that are taking place now will permanently saddle him and the republicans for everything negative that results from Iraq even if done by a Democratic president. Such a President will have a lot of wiggle room for fixing everything the Republicans have wrought.
Bush would be better served by trying to wind down Iraq now in time for voters to think that he didn’t do what he could to end it.
The great liberal era we have all been waiting for seems to be possible now. Anyone who knows about tidal waves realizes that when the tide goes way way out, then the wave coming in is going to be way way big. With the Republicans doubly painting themselves into a corner, it suggest that the tsunami may well be on the way.
The great conservative era is likely to end as ignominously as the previous one did in the 1920s. With two case studies like that the republicans become more discredited.
I wonder if they can servive as a party?
I think that in order to win as a Senator for a state, one needs to somewhat mirror the views of that state. And to win as a President, they need to mirror the views of the nation in the states that they expect to win. So it is not unusual for folks to move a bit. However, it is interesting to note that when a politician says, “I favor …”, it does not necessarily mean they believe … is a good thing, only that they will support … because they believe their constituency wants it, and they are willing to go along with them.
I liked John Kerry and did not see him flip flop too much, even though he was painted that way by the media looking for drama and by his opponents.
I like Obama, yet am a bit concerned he may not have enough experience. If he won, I would hope he would get some very experienced people to help him. Clinton did not do that at first, and his first few years were a bit hectic.