Democrats Seek Revenge for Clinton Years
By Georg Mascolo in Washington DER SPIEGEL 44/2006 - November 2, 2006 URL: http://www.spiegel. <http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,446035,00.html> de/international/spiegel/0,1518,446035,00.html BUSH'S LAST STAND The Democrats are pushing their way back into power, and in next week's US congressional elections they could even end the Republicans' long-standing stranglehold on power. But not even the stars in America's opposition party have a plan for the country's future course. Campaigner George W. Bush: Reports of corruption, racism and sex scandals AFP Campaigner George W. Bush: Reports of corruption, racism and sex scandals WASHINGTON -- Things are not looking good -- for the president, for his party and for an entire caste of Washington officials who, in the last six years, have gotten used to the idea that their control over the country is unshakable, almost a law of nature. The situation is so desperate that President George W. Bush sees himself forced to campaign on behalf of someone like Congressman Don Sherwood. Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district was once Republic territory, with Sherwood capturing 92 percent of the vote in the last election. It was considered a lost cause for Democrats. But this year even the president himself has come to the district to campaign for the congressman. According to the latest opinion polls, Sherwood is expected to lose the race. Bush, in a last-ditch attempt to save his fellow Republican's seat, is torturing himself through his standard speech, speaking to a half-empty room at Keystone College in La Plume. If the Democrats win a majority in Congress in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, says Bush, they will only raise taxes and leave America vulnerable to terrorists. "Don Sherwood is the right man," the president calls out -- to hardly any applause. Bush's appearance in Pennsylvania is embarrassing for the president. The dignity Bush had claimed he would bring back to political life in Washington after the supposedly licentious Clinton years has also suffered under his fellow Republicans, and Congressman Sherwood is only a small, wretched example. In September 2004, a young woman locked herself into the bathroom in Sherwood's Washington home and called the police to report that the congressman had tried to strangle her. Though Sherwood has repeatedly denied the claim, he eventually settled with his would-be victim for an unknown sum of money -- which is probably the only reason Bush agreed to appear on his behalf. A Republican disaster In only five days, US voters will be electing 33 senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives, and such presidential rescue missions in once safely Republican strongholds are now a fixture on Bush's schedule. From Pennsylvania, Air Force One will be headed for Virginia, where Senator George Allen is in a tight race for his reelection. Weeks ago, the dapper Republican was still considered a presidential hopeful, but then his prospects took a sharp turn for the worse when Allen, speaking at a campaign event, repeatedly referred to an American of Indian descent as a "macaca." Things aren't looking much better for the GOP in the rest of the country. Bush's last campaign threatens to turn into a disaster for the Republicans and, if it does, could lead to a fundamental shift in the balance of power in the United States. To capture the congressional majority the Republicans have held for years, the Democrats will have to capture 15 seats in the House of Representatives and at least six seats in the Senate. The Democrats are certain to gain the majority in the House and the Senate is at least a possibility, says well known demographer Charlie Cook. The never-ending trail of corruption, racism and sex scandals has turned off many Americans to Republican dominance. Voters were especially appalled by the affair surrounding Congressman Mark Foley. Using the screen name Maf54, Foley, the former Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, sent lascivious instant messages to congressional pages. In one exchange, Foley wrote: "Do I make you a little horny?" The teenager responded: "A little." Although Foley has since resigned, the fact that leading members of his own party knew about the accusations but still kept them a secret has weighed heavily on the Republicans. Bush and his Republicans also face voters' frustration over declining real wages for the suburban middle class and their anger over the government's ongoing tax breaks for the ultra-rich. But the biggest issue that is making a landslide victory for the Democrats seem increasingly likely is Iraq -- and the fact that America's military effort there is sinking deeper into chaos every day. Fifty-eight percent of US citizens consider the invasion a mistake, and only 19 percent still believe in the victory Bush has promised. Nothing makes the president more unpopular than the realization that he has squandered the nation's military and moral strength, and that he has done so for reasons that either never existed or that no one understands anymore. A new direction This is why the Democrats are now promising a "new direction" for the country, a term that sounds as vague as it in fact is. The Democrats have no clearly defined program of their own. When it comes to the country's biggest foreign policy issue -- its future course in Iraq -- the party cannot even agree over whether it should support withdrawal or sending in more troops. This explains why the Democrats are less interested in helping shape policy during Bush's two remaining years in office than they are in settling scores. The lies over Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, Vice President Dick Cheney's uninvestigated dealings with the energy industry, the wiretapping of US citizens in the name of Bush's War on Terror and ties between Jack Abramoff, a once-powerful Washington lobbyist who has now been sentenced to almost six years in prison, and the White House -- the Democrats now hope to carefully investigate all of these misdeeds in Congress. Soon, they hope, the Republican majority that would otherwise obstruct their investigations will be gone. The Democrats have apparently turned revenge for Bill Clinton into a campaign platform. During Clinton's presidency, the Republican majority in Congress spent 140 hours hearing testimony over whether Clinton had misused the White House Christmas card list to seek out potential Democratic donors. By contrast, there have been only twelve hours of testimony so far on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. That will certainly change after a Democratic victory at the polls. Last week the senior George Bush said that he hated to think about all the things that could happen to his son in the wake of a Republican defeat. Fellow party members on a downward trajectory can become just as dangerous to politicians as their political adversaries. A president no longer capable of winning loses all authority, so much so that those who hope to take his place must make a wide berth around him -- including 2008 presidential hopefuls such as powerful Senator John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. For the first time since 1952, neither an incumbent president nor his vice president will be a candidate for the presidency. Karl Rove's smear tactics Chief Bush strategist Karl Rove is attempting to put a last-minute stop to the party's downward slide with a new spate of below-the-belt campaign ads. In <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h3GPc_yMCE> one clip currently making the rounds on the Internet, Bill Clinton's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is ridiculed when an actress portraying Albright is shown fixing up terrorist leader Bin Laden's cave. "I am sick of Karl Rove's bullshit," a fuming Clinton responded, "Nixon was a Communist compared to this crowd." But Rove's vicious tactics have not produced the hoped-for bump in the polls for Republicans. "They've played this game one too many times," says a jubilant Harry Reid, the Democratic Minority Leader in the Senate, "but it isn't working anymore." Part of the reason is that many Democratic candidates have paved the way by taking a page from New York Senator Hillary Clinton's book and shifting noticeably to the right -- where they are more likely to find the majority of Americans. "I love Jesus, I can't help it," says Harold Ford in Tennessee, where a Democrat hasn't won the Senate race in 16 years. To capture the seat in this southern state and prove his independence, the 36-year-old African-American candidate takes pains to be seen in popular redneck hangouts, such the Little Rebel Bar, which still flies a Confederate flag. The angry left wing of the Democratic Party, which was unable to gain support for Iraq war opponent Ned Lamont against the hawkish Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary, no longer has much of a say in party politics. Instead, the party is pinning its hopes of winning in key election districts on the so-called Macho Democrats: dozens of war veterans who are immune against being called soft on national security -- a political death sentence in the United States. One of them is Jim Webb, who served in Vietnam and still carries shrapnel in one of his kidneys and at the base of his skull. Webb, who is challenging George Allen's Senate seat in Virginia and whose son is serving in Iraq, wears combat boots to every campaign appearance. Farther north, in Chicago, Tammy Duckworth struggles from one campaign appearance to the next on two steel prostheses. The petite major in the National Guard lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down over Baghdad. "I have risked my life to serve my country and you cannot question my patriotism," she tells her cheering supporters. In Pennsylvania, Joe Sestak, a highly decorated former vice admiral and battle group commander in the fight against terrorism, is running for Congress. The nastiest campaign in modern history The Republicans have been firing such heavy artillery at war heroes like Sestak and Duckworth that the respected Congressional Quarterly writes that the 2006 "campaign is shaping up to be the nastiest of the modern era." Sestak's opponent, conservative Curt Weldon, accused the former military man of insufficient loyalty to his home turf. When his five-year-old daughter had a brain tumor, Sestak took her to a special hospital in Washington for treatment instead of seeking treatment in Pennsylvania. But like corruption scandals and sexual affairs, such malicious maneuvers have backfired on their instigators. Former presidential aide David Kuo dealt one of the most devastating blows to an increasingly panicky Republican establishment when he revealed that Bush's most loyal voters, the fundamentalist Christian right, are referred to as "the nuts" in the White House. If the outraged Christian contingent truly stayed at home next Tuesday, Republican defeat would be certain. The Republicans are now pinning their hopes on their ability to successfully mobilize voters. Seventy-two hours before election day, the party's campaign volunteers will attempt to convince conservatives to head to the polls in a barrage of phone calls and door-to-door campaigning. Strategist Rove spends hours every day asking religious leaders for their help. Last Tuesday Bush invited conservative radio hosts from all over America to a meeting at the White House, where they were met by half of Bush's obedient cabinet in a white tent in front of the Oval Office. Press Secretary Tony Snow conducted 34 interviews in a spurt to the finish line meant to keep his president's party in power. "I know deep in my heart that we won't lose," says Bush, sneering at Democrats who seem overly confident in victory. The Democrats, who have botched their own share of elections considered safe in the past, are indeed cocky. "I'll have my pick of offices here pretty soon," says House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who will likely become the first female House majority leader after a victory for her party. The mood among Democrats is so rosy that upcoming congressional elections have already faded from the public debate, which is already focusing on the potential candidates' prospects in the 2008 presidential election. There has been speculation that Senator Hillary Clinton will announce her candidacy by as early as election night next week. Her victory in New York is considered a sure thing, and a strong victory in the senatorial race would only boost her chances of capturing the White House. But the prospect of Hillary as a presidential candidate triggers mixed feelings within the party. Critics accuse Clinton of having made so many compromises that no one knows exactly what she represents anymore. For conservatives like Evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell, she is a dream opponent. "Nothing will energize my constituency like Hillary Clinton," says Falwell. "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't." The Democrats are so worried about whether the former First Lady could in fact win that even political newcomers are already eying a candidacy. Barack Obama, a sharp and well-dressed African-American attorney from Illinois, is considered one of the party's most promising talents -- although his prospects for gaining even higher office were once touted as being part of a more distant future. The 45-year-old Obama has been a Senator for all of two years, and he lacks political experience. So far he has brushed aside all questions about a possible run for president by saying: "I will serve out my full six-year term." But Obama suddenly changed his tune last week when he said that he would "sit down and consider" a bid for the presidency by as early as 2008. Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan _____ C DER SPIEGEL 44/2006 All Rights Reserved Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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