NEWSWEEK(Hirsh) says the draft 2006 Democratic Platform "reeks of fear" ??

[papau]

Does the draft 2006 Democratic Platform "reek of fear" - the Dean Q&A below does not seem to fit that description.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13070973/site/newsweek

The “strong” ones are actually the most timid. They are the ones who so fear that a leftie like Nancy Pelosi will become speaker of the House, they actually question whether it would be a good idea for the Dems to take control in 2006. They are the ones who think they can outhawk Bush on Iraq and promotion of democracy around the world, but they are mainly driven by a fear of criticizing the premises of his foreign policy, which is to say, his war on terror. While nitpicking and nattering over Bush’s “errors of execution,” they still embrace his fundamentals. In other words, they all continue to sound like unreconstructed John Kerrys, frightened of seeming soft. When they get together, this fear is virtually all they talk about. It is a fear that reeks from the party’s new draft platform for 2006 ( NESWEEK gives this address for the "draft platform" http://www.democrats.org/agenda.html but there is nothing there), causing Leslie Gelb, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to crack to liberal hawk Peter Beinert recently: “If you have to say you’re tough, you’re not.”

The champion of this “new” breed of Dem tough guys, of course, is Hillary Clinton, who every week, it seems, finds some new way of pandering to the right in her long, stealth march to the 2008 nomination. All in an apparent effort to escape her own shadow, her supposed liberal excesses from the early '90s.
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IS THIS THE DRAFT DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM THAT REEKS OF FEAR?


http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/05/howard_dean_out.php

Howard Dean Outlines Democratic Agenda for Real Change on This Week
May 8, 2006


Today, on ABC's "This Week," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean outlined the Democratic Party's agenda for bold leadership and real change. He answered tough questions from host George Stephanopoulos. The following are excerpts from Dean's appearance:

The Democratic Agenda for Real Change:
"The fact is we want real change in this country. We're going to balance the budget, we're going to have American jobs that stay in America and we're going to have honesty and openness in government again. I think those are pretty important. The next thing we're going to do after that is make sure that everybody has health care in this country. If they can do that in 36 countries around the world, we can do that here in the United States of America...

"We want real change in this country, and that's the central election issue. Do you want more of the same, or do you want real change? Because the Democrats are ready to lead again."

Ending the Republican Culture of Corruption:
"There is a culture that goes from the White House to the Vice President's office to the leadership of the United States Senate to the leadership of the United States House of Representatives, and in the agencies. Corruption has become a way of life and it has to change. We have to pass real ethics legislation, not the nonsense that was passed last week in the House of Representatives.

"We promise you that within 100 days we will vote on real ethics legislation. It will pass and there will be no more free trips. There will be no more free lunches and there will be no more sticking things in big appropriations bills that give oil companies and HMOs billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers' money in the middle of the night."

Commitment to Balanced Budgets:
"Republicans, of course, have been the biggest spenders, I think, since any Congress that I can think of except during World War II. This is just outrageous what they've done. They wouldn't know a balanced budget if they saw one. And the thing that is so telling about what the Republicans did, they got rid of this legislation that we used to call "pay/go" legislation. That is, you can't spend money unless you say where you're going to get the money. Every American family has to do that, and the federal government should do that too. And they will do that when the Democrats take back the Congress and the White House."

On Failed Republican Leadership:
"The truth is we've got some big problems in this country. We've got a major health care problem. We're losing jobs. The economy is in good shape if you look at corporate earnings, but for 80% of the American people they're struggling. We're in a war that the President says he wants to pass on to the next President to fix. This is ridiculous what's going on in Washington."

On the Bush Administration's Use of Prewar Intelligence:
"I think it's time to stop beating up on the professionals in the CIA. The fact is they did their job. They gave the intelligence to the White House. The White House didn't want to use the intelligence. The intelligence failures that got us into Iraq were not by large in the CIA, they were in the White House. They wouldn't listen to what they were being told by the CIA."

[SteppingRazor]

1. It may not reek of fear, but it does reek...

Almost every point on the agenda attacks Republicans instead of promoting the planks of the Democratic platform. When we're talking about setting up a legislative agenda, playing ball on their territory isn't a good idea.

[Rose Siding]

2. He doesn't even have his facts right

-that is if any of the "dems" he's talking about are in the US House-

Hirsh writes: The “strong” ones are actually the most timid. They are the ones who so fear that a leftie like Nancy Pelosi will become speaker of the House, they actually question whether it would be a good idea for the Dems to take control in 2006.

But House dems do support her-

snip>

In an informal survey of Democratic candidates conducted by The Hill, the vast majority of incumbents and challengers asked said they would vote for Pelosi as Speaker if Democrats take the majority. The candidates expressed strong support for Pelosi in spite of an ongoing effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to vilify her as a San Francisco liberal who would push the party to the left.
.......
“Republicans’ worst fear is that a churchgoing mother of five and grandmother of five will become the first woman Speaker of the House if Democrats win in November,” Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said.

Perhaps more important, the effort has not generated fear among incumbent Democratic lawmakers who represent Republican-leaning congressional districts. When The Hill surveyed Democratic candidates, even some challengers less familiar with Pelosi’s leadership style emphatically offered their support.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/053106.html

[Dhalgren]

3. Hirsh does make some pretty good points.

"No one looks like a wimp when he or she tells the truth. And the public is crying, pleading for someone to tell the truth. The Democratic hawks seem to think that if they confront Bush over the fundamentals of his foreign policy, they will be forced to admit it was wrong to go into Iraq at the moment and in the way we did." <snip>

"The country is desperate for adult leadership, for competence and authority—above all, for an honest reckoning with all that’s gone wrong. And the country isn’t getting it. Maybe that helps to explain the Al Gore revival under way. Here, at least, was someone who can remember what adulthood was like—what it was like to hold power. Most of his Democratic colleagues appear to have forgotten."


I would debate with him on this item, though:

"Most Americans now know, without being told, that American prestige is on the line in Iraq. And that any withdrawal will be slow and painful. This is now settled U.S. policy, and it will be followed by whoever the next president is, Democrat or Republican."

This, to me, seems to be the true source of the problem. What defines "American prestige"? Our prestige was destroyed the moment we invaded Iraq based on a pack of transparent lies. It doesn't hurt your country's prestige to act like an adult and admit when you are wrong. The thing that would most help American prestige would be for the people to take back control of the country and prosecute the Bush administration for domestic crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Once the world sees that the American people are back in charge and cleaning house our prestige will be just fine...

[papau]

4. I agree n/t

n/t

[mike_c]

5. frankly, I think Hirsch is spot on in most respects (as usual)....

It might be uncomfortable to have his penetrating eye turned onto the Democratic platform and party political maneuvering for 2006, but Hirsch is like a scalpel-- you can depend on him to cut deeply into rot wherever he finds it.

Yes, there are exceptions in the House, as Rose Siding points out, and there are planks in the platform that are uniquely democratic, like a semi-liberal approach to health care. But too many democrats are still too wedded to institutionalizing support for the fundamentals of Bush's "war on terror" and teh security state it is engendering, and too many are afraid to appear the least bit liberal, thus trying to blend in amongst a republican background like rodents in the brush. There is little forthrightness in the Democratic party-- instead many dem leaders spend their time whining about the particulars of republican issues.

[thingfisher]

6. With a multi-trillion dollar

National Debt staring them in the face, what the dems would like to do and what they can do might be very different things. How to rectify the situation in Iraq is going to be tricky business. Dems can't just say we are going to be better than the repugs... that is expected. They need to articulate the steps that they will take to implement their desires, like health care and how to pay for it. My fear is that the government is so riddled with special interst money that it will be impossible to legislate without depending on it. Yes we want REAL change not just the rearranging of the deck chairs on the ship of state.