Don’t get cocky. Every Dem should read this book. A lot of the changes Rove has made since 2000 are going to have lasting, systemic effects favoring the Pubs unless the Dems make it a top priority to dismantle them. E.g., the systematic gerrymandering, the packing of the judiciary with ideological conservatives, and the K Street Project. And some are changes in Pub strategy, beyond the Dems’ power to dismantle – e.g., repudiating the veiled racism of the “Southern Strategy,” and reaching out to black and Latino voters. (They don’t hope to capture those blocs as a whole, but attracting some social-conservative black and Latino voter can be enough to make the difference in close elections.)
The K Street Project ended up backfiring on the Republicans. Old school politicians understood the value in letting their opposition counterparts have a taste of whatever corrupt money was floating around - it gave them a personal interest in not rocking the boat. A lot of Democrats probably would have been happy to take Jack Abramoff’s money if he had offered it.
Actually, the Senate was majority Republican for the full first six years of Reagan’s presidency.
One of the possible problems with the office of President is all the different hats the President is expected to wear. Constitutionally the President is supposed to be head of state, head of government, and head of the military. On top of that at least for the past 150 years the President is seen as the “head” of the political party of which he is a remember and thus has a responsibility to work to get other persons in his party elected as well.
Most other countries divide these duties up in some way between multiple persons.
I agree, it’s part of the job of being a politician, especially if you believe that the outcome of the local races will directly impact your ability to carry out your policies after the new Congress is sworn in.
Even without that stipulation, I would expect that state and local pols have to spend some time out of their workday campaigning to win the next election.
Except Ted Kennedy, maybe.
I hear all these arguments but I still think that the President taking an active role in “getting his people” in the legislative branch is a transparent undermining of the “separation of power” that was the whole point of dividing our government into 3 bodies.
Gosh, that sounds hard! Let’s Amend the Constitution to make things easier for Fearless Leader.
He actually took less vacation this year. Bless his heart.
Here in Maryland, the Republican candidate for Senator is Michael Steele.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran an ad showing how close Steele’s policies are to those of Bush, and showing pictures of Steele and Bush together. You can view the ad here.
I love the final tagline for the ad:
Michael Steele: He likes puppies, but loves George Bush.
I can definitely see it both ways in this situation. I’d like to see the Veep take on either more of the actual day-to-day operations (insert favorite Cheney and puppet joke here) or the Veep goes out and hunts down support (insert Cheney and quail joke).
I suppose I’m saying that if the President goes to drum up support, the Veep should step up. If the Prez stays in (the general vicinity of) DC, then the Veep goes out to the rest of the country.
by the way, xtisme, how much are you looking forward to Medieval 2 Total War? it’s only 9 or 10 days left!
Sliced together with lemon and garlic and roasted at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for exactly 3-1/2 hours with frequent basting . . .
…but basted with what? The blood and tears of a million orphans?