WP: Bush Aims to Forge a GOP Legacy

[kskiska]

Second-Term Plans Look to Undercut Democratic Pillars

Sunday, January 30, 2005; Page A01

When President Bush stands before Congress on Wednesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, it is a safe bet that he will not announce that one of his goals is the long-term enfeeblement of the Democratic Party.

But a recurring theme of many items on Bush's second-term domestic agenda is that if enacted, they would weaken political and financial pillars that have propped up Democrats for years, political strategists from both parties say.

Legislation putting caps on civil damage awards, for instance, would choke income to trial lawyers, among the most generous contributors to the Democratic Party.

GOP strategists, likewise, hope that the proposed changes to Social Security can transform a program that has long been identified with the Democrats, creating a generation of new investors who see their interests allied with the Republicans.

(snip)

Many Democrats and independent analysts see a methodical strategy at work. They believe the White House has expressly tailored its domestic agenda to maximize hazards for Democrats and tilt the political playing field in the GOP's favor long after this president is out of the White House.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47559-2005Jan29.html

[Sandpiper]

1. Bush wants to leave behind a new Gilded Age

Where the top 1% own everything, and the rest of us are left out in the cold.

[tsuki]

2. GOP Legacy...Everyone is screwed, but gay people can't get

married.

[msongs]

3. the question is, will the dems do anything to change this??

ok we have boxer and kennedy and conyers in the house. anyone else?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[54anickel]

4. He's forging a legacy alright!!! The total demise of the US as we

know it. He's teamed up with OBL to make the US a shadow of it's former self and the a$$hole is either too stupid to realize it or is just that plain evil.

[fshrink]

5. Hope he succeeds!

The GOP will have to carry the image of a plain idiot, doubled with an asshole, for a long time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. It's like dangling a carrot from the forward side of the Titanic.

[mahina]

7. A bon mot- forge is just what he'll do.

What else would a fraud do?

Grrrr

[xray s]

8. Not a new legacy really

Just picking up where Herbert Hoover left off.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Bush does not believe in 'legacy.'

As Bob Woodward was asked to say over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over:

Bush believes that we will "all be dead" before the Bush 'legacy' is established.

Bush's Argmageddonist Nazi Final Solution has no room for a legacy.

[Solon]

10. I'm hoping he does...

then the Republicans will be unelectable for 50+ years or so, ahhh, a nice dream.

[high density]

11. Delusional people

"GOP strategists, likewise, hope that the proposed changes to Social Security can transform a program that has long been identified with the Democrats, creating a generation of new investors who see their interests allied with the Republicans."

The fact is that most of the "investors" in this country are already Republicans. The rest of us don't have a lot of money available to speculate in the stock market.

[Voltaire99]

12. This is something of a romantic view of Bush's power

Much of the secret to Bush's success has been and will be the complacence of the putative opposition, the shamed party that has the nerve to still name itself after democracy.

Cf. the feats and wonders of Ronald Reagan, who managed to get a timid and frightened Democratic majority in Congress to do much of his bidding, too.

It's not all that hard, my friends, in a political monoculture.

[Occulus]

13. trial lawyers have experience, though

"Legislation putting caps on civil damage awards, for instance, would choke income to trial lawyers, among the most generous contributors to the Democratic Party."

HAH!

Ok, so let's see what the various bar associations' reactions are going to be. Are they sneaky enough to then turn right around and file lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit on their own time?

Is * asking them to come after him by the thousands?

It sure sounds like it.....

[Guaranteed]

14. Yes, it's the old "I destroyed America" legacy.

Long sought-after by the neocons. Good for them!

[oasis]

15. The Ownwership Society. "We own you and your dreams" Bushco.

:hurts:

[jdj]

16. that's quite a liberal article for the post.

what's with the sudden fit of truth telling?

seizure activity? or maybe this is one of the pay for play journalists who's trying to cover his ass?