Democrats ‘Measuring the Drapes’ in Congress

What happened

As both parties poured money and campaign workers into 50 hotly contested races, polls showed Democrats with a good chance of taking control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994. Analysts gave Democrats a shot at winning the Senate, too, but only if they can win all of six tight races involving Republican incumbents. Anticipating a return to the majority, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who would become the first female Speaker of the House, laid out an agenda for the Democrats' first 100 hours. It includes new limits on lobbyists, enacting all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and raising the federal minimum wage. 'œWe must drain the swamp of Washington,' said Pelosi.

President Bush said the Democrats were prematurely 'œmeasuring the drapes' for their new offices, and worked to rally the Republican base by attacking the Democrats as weak on national defense. 'œThe Democrat approach on Iraq comes down to this,' he told a cheering crowd in Georgia. 'œThe terrorists win, and America loses.' Both parties planned an intensive get-out-the-vote drive for next week, at a combined cost of $70 million. 'œWhen our voters show up at the polls,' said Bush, 'œwe will keep control of the House and Senate.'

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What the editorials said

Here are 'œa few of the highlights, if that's the right word,' of the Democrats' agenda, said The Wall Street Journal. They'll raise taxes for the top income bracket, cut defense spending, and 'œmake the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil' by banning new oil drilling in Alaska. Then they'll move on to price controls for medicine and burdensome regulations on business. No wonder 'œMs. Pelosi isn't plastering most of this agenda on billboards around the country.'

Even if Democrats win thin majorities in the House and Senate, said The Nation, they won't have the votes to push such an ambitious legislative agenda. Bush could veto any bill they pass. What a Democratic majority can do, however, is 'œdemand answers for misdeeds and misguided politics.' Want to know why we really got into Iraq and where the money for rebuilding went? Or which corporate interests are helping to write the nation's energy, environmental, and health-care policies? After six years of a president who thought he was accountable to no one, congressional investigators will finally expose 'œa tall stack of outrages, lies, and potentially criminal abuses.'

What the columnists said

Republicans have spent the election trying to turn Nancy Pelosi into a 'œboogeyman,' said Jonathan Chait in The New Republic. But they rarely say exactly what they don't like about the Democrats' proposed agenda. 'œThere's a good reason for that: It's popular.' Pelosi's common-sense proposals resonate with most Americans: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare recipients, and approve stem-cell research.

If Democrats win, it won't be because of their liberal agenda, said former House Majority Leader Dick Armey in The Washington Post. Disgusted voters will be casting their ballots against Republicans. And for that, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Somehow we went 'œfrom the big ideas and vision'' of 1994's Contract With America, featuring limited government and tax cuts, to a Congress devoted to deficit spending, pork projects, and 'œmeaningless wedge issues'' such as flag burning, Terri Schiavo, and gay marriage.

The election will be decided by Republican voter turnout, said Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard. The GOP will keep both houses of Congress 'œas long as Republicans'”and especially conservative Republicans'”act like adults, not like petulant children angry over one thing or another that didn't go their way.' Sitting out the election to punish Republicans for their failures is not only childish, it's self-defeating. Â

What next?

If Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress, said David Broder in The Washington Post, Bush will be forced to make a choice: continue his combative ways and doom the remainder of his term to gridlock, or suck it up and learn to compromise. If he chooses to make deals, Democrats will help him pass the comprehensive immigration reform that conservatives shot down. If he'll agree to postpone privatization, they are ready to discuss Social Security reforms. This will require uncharacteristic humility on Bush's part, 'œbut the rewards for the country could be very large.'