(Emphasis mine.)
March 31, 2010
POST-HEALTH CARE PLOTTING.... It's nearly April. There are about seven months until the midterms, and for now, Congress's approval rating is pretty abysmal. Policymakers, after a lengthy dry-spell, recently completed two major policy breakthroughs, delivering on critically important campaign promises, but now have to decide what to do next.
Jonathan Allen reports that even among Democrats, opinions vary. The White House wants to build on last week's success to move forward on other ambitious initiatives. There's some "resistance," however, on the Hill.
I can appreciate why some hand-wringing incumbents might be content to avoid additional fights, especially in an election year, but members of Congress are rarely punished for too much success. It's pretty unusual to hear a voter say, "My rep got a lot done. I hate that."
And there's still the matter of getting Democrats' rank-and-file motivated for cycle.
The "enthusiasm gap" seems to be shrinking, but all evidence suggests Republicans will be turning out in force on Election Day. The more Dems can maintain some enthusiasm among its voters, the better they'll fare in November. That means getting the job done on Wall Street reform, repealing DADT, tackling an energy/climate bill, and getting to work on immigration.These need not be considered "tough votes" -- polls show pretty strong support for Democratic proposals on all of these issues.
"There's still an opportunity to get a bunch of really big things done," said one senior House Democratic aide.
Dems have to decide to keep their foot on the gas.
—Steve Benen 9:25 AM
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_03/023130.php
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
