May 17, 2006 
Richard Morin and Dan Balz write in today’s Washington Post:
Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP’s fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.
Dissatisfaction with the administration’s policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans. The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country — 69 percent said the nation is now off track — and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats’ chances to make gains in November.
Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.
The catch, say Morin and Balz, is that the voters aren’t all that wild about Democrats either. There is widespread dissatisfaction with incumbents of all species. The numbers reflect a backlash against right-wing mis-government, not a conversion to the Democratic Party vision, whatever that is. Of those surveyed, 52 percent said they didn’t see much difference between the two parties.
Meanwhile the alleged front-runner for the 2008 Dem nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton, cautiously practices “tactical bipartisanship” to win approval of some mythical “center.” Robert Kuttner writes,
With the Republicans in free-fall, national problems continuing to mount, and a rising national chorus begging the Democrats to stand for something, Senator Clinton has come to epitomize why the Democrats may yet fail to rise to the occasion and lead. …
… If she keeps transparently cozying up to the right, Senator Clinton could easily lose what faltering affection she retains from Democratic voters, but without impressing the center. Democratic operative Donna Brazile contends, too charitably, that Murdoch’s support shows that Hillary has ”crossover appeal” (sure, as in crossing over to grab whatever isn’t nailed down).
Back to Morin and Balz. “The public mood indicates that the midterm elections are likely to be a referendum on the president and his party,” they write. But the GOP still has more than five months in which to demonize their opposition, a tactic that has worked brilliantly for them in the past. Once again, the Dems’ failure to define themselves give the GOP the opportunity to define the Democrats.
On the bright side, today the Hartford Courant is running an op ed by Lowell Weicker endorsing Joe Lieberman’s challenger, Ned Lamont. (Yay!) Writes Weicker,
The majority of Democrats say they support Sen. Joe Lieberman in spite of his backing the war, since Iraq, after all, is only one of many issues facing voters.
Hello! To characterize the most monumental screw-up of our times as “only one of many issues” is like admiring the theater marquees on Broadway with King Kong on the loose.
And here’s a big ray of hope — last night brother blogger Chris Bowers of MyDD won election to the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Chris’s election means that an establishment Democrat has been replaced by a sure-enough leftie blogger. “The city, the state, and the nation will change as a result,” writes Chris. “I promise everyone that. … We will all win, eventually.” We just have to keep pushing.
Lowell Weicker quoted a couple of lines from the abolitionist poem “The Present Crisis” by James Russell Lowell, written in 1844. (Some readers might recognize the poem as the lyrics for “Once to Every Man and Nation,” sung to the tune of a Welsh hymn, “Ton-y-botel.” I think “ton-y-botel” means “tune in a bottle,” but I’m not going to swear to that.) If you think “Iraq” where Lowell wrote “slavery,” some of these lines seem appropriate now:
Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood,
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,
Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;-
Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ‘t is prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
Cowards, stand aside.
Update: They’re starting to sound like us — this guy (a rightie) thinks it would be better for Republicans in 2008 if Dems take back Congress in 2006. Heh.
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