Don't think based on the title of this post that a non-governing Congress is necessarily a bad thing, but the recent rout of Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) by Cindy Sheehan demonstrates exactly why the Democrats won't be able to get much done during their tenure in power.
House Democratic leaders were giving their first news conference of the year when the session in the Cannon building was hijacked by Cindy Sheehan and other antiwar demonstrators, some wearing tie-dyed apparel and pins comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler. Just after Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) vowed, "We're gonna cut the interest rate in half for student loans," hecklers began to chant "De-escalate! Investigate! Troops home now!""That is exactly what we're talking about," Emanuel said, trying to appease the protesters. But the hecklers kept chanting, and he fled.
The Democratic leaders in retreat, Sheehan seized the microphone. "We put them back in power," she said of the Democrats. Passing out fliers calling for defunding the Iraq war, Sheehan shouted: "These are our demands. And they're not requests -- they're demands."
The biggest problem with the Democrat party is that their tent became so broad that they had to sacrifice depth. The party is little more than a conglomeration of tiny interest groups who share little in common except their hatred for religion, wealth, liberty, and President Bush.
Sheehan is right: she and her ilk did put the Democrats in power. Now that the Democrats used her to attain power, will they be able to keep their power and use it without kowtowing to the people they represent? If you want to get reelected, you've got to "dance with the one what brung ya", no matter how repulsive she is.
So what can the Democrats do? If they want to win the presidency in 2008, their best bet is to do as little as possible. Emanuel didn't confront Sheehan on her lunacy because she is his base, but he couldn't stay and be associated with her because he's really proud of the job he did orchestrating the Democrat's victory in 2004 and he'd like to keep building his political career. So he did the only thing he could: he ran away.
You posted the part of the article you liked. You missed the rest.
The 109th congress made their beds. Let them sleep.
And the nonsensical division of Americans into us-and-them left and right is what weakens us. Stop.
Dmtpoa: I didn't miss anything, I just didn't think the rest of the article was that interesting. That Republicans feel cut out of the process now isn't what I was writing about.
Furthermore, I haven't divided Americans into groups... people do that on their own by choosing sides on substantial and important topics. The divisions aren't arbitrary and they aren't trivial. There are groups with very different opinions within America... we're all "American", but we're divided because of our own different opinions. If you want to eliminate the divisions, then change your opinions to agree with mine.
Democrats don't hate "Bush, religion or liberty." It's human nature to make a hated enemy out of another faction. Now we're seeing the fruits of that: the Republican-dominated 109th congress, and other people I voted for, thought they could marginalize and ignore representatives of HALF the country. That's not America.
I am hoping the dems will listen to our side. I can't blame them if they don't. The conservative movement has fallen to pieces. Fox News is a channel of schoolyard bullies on the govermnent dole. When Newt Gingrich himself mourns the dominance of partisanship, it's over.
The 109th couldn't govern. They failed in every way that matters, most particularly in pioneering the crap the Dems will now hit us with. Welcome back to the minority. We should have listened.