Election 08: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not

Some thought the 109th Congress - one that spent the least time in session of any in a half century - might surprise critics with a final post-election surge of legislative activity. But instead of throwing a Hail Mary, the lame-ducks prefer to take a knee and watch the clock run out.

As Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) explained: “We’re tired.”

So how do bored politicians and bored media fill the time until a new, rejuvenated Congress convenes in January? Saying stupid things. Democrats had barely begun celebrating their return to power when Jim Carville called for Howard Dean’s resignation. Figure that out.

Then came a Quinnipiac “thermometer” poll testing how much heat candidates were generating for the 2008 Presidential race. Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama and John McCain led the list – no surprise there. The Conventional Wisdom (CW) is that the pro-choice Giuliani is too liberal to win the Republican nomination but if he did would be unbeatable in the general election. He won instant fame and became “America’s Mayor” in the aftermath of 9-11. With Air Force One in a holding pattern and Vice President Cheney in a distant bunker, Rudy was the only grown-up in the smoking ruins of the Twin Towers. What many forget is that prior to 9-11, as his second term was winding down and his second marriage breaking up, Rudy’s approval ratings were in the tank and he was on his way to political oblivion. All the bizarre factors responsible are sure to be dredged up by the national media in a general election.

While Hillary Clinton was a distant ninth in the Quinnipiac poll, she still has what it takes to cause fear and trembling in Marlboro Country. Dallas businessman Richard Collins has put $80,000 into a new group called Stop Her Now. “We expect to raise millions of dollars from conservative donors that want to keep her from being elected president,” said Collins, who owns a group of newspapers in Texas. He plans to solicit the Texans who bankrolled the Swift Boat Veterans for his anti-Hillary effort. Good thinking. Here is where Collins’ strategy may backfire: “Hillary is trying to define herself as a centrist Democrat when in fact she’s an ultraliberal Democrat.” If he can convince Democratic primary voters of that, Hillary is a shoo-in.

Registering absolutely no heat on the Quinnipiac thermometer were two Republicans who have expressed their interest in `08. Rep. Duncan Hunter, fresh from being grilled by a grand jury for taking money from the guys who bribed Duke Cunningham, has announced his candidacy for President. And Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback recently said “after much prayerful consideration” he is considering a bid.

Social conservative Brownback is for Republicans what ultra lefty Dennis Kucinich is for Democrats, his problem being his reach doesn’t go much beyond his base. Still, his candidacy makes him a leading alternative to John McCain. As one astute conservative pundit told The Hill: “The way I see the race shaping up is that it’s going to be McCain against someone who’s not McCain. McCain has a lot of people in the party who don’t like him.”

With his strong religious beliefs, Presidential candidate Brownback may bring some restraint to the raucous anti-Hillary crowd. In the Senate dining room earlier this year, Brownback told a reporter: “I’m a child of the living God. You are too. Ted Kennedy? A beautiful child of the living God. Hillary Clinton? Yes, even Hillary. Especially Hillary.”

Congress: The Long Goodbye

Has the lame-duck died yet? Is there a pulse? The news media are too busy speculating about the new Democratic 110th Congress to pay much attention to the final throes of the do-nothing 109th.

I figure the first hundred hours of the Pelosi-Reid regime will accomplish more than these guys did in two years. The 109th was 0-for-`05 and `06.

After all this Congressional dysfunction, voters can’t wait for Democrats to fire up their “first 100 hours” agenda. Sure—Republicans can play an obstructionist role, but do they dare? The GOP doesn’t need pollsters to tell them that beyond the beltway the “100 hour agenda” is going to be wildly popular, with such winners as a minimum wage increase, stem cell research, allowing the government to negotiate for lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries and repealing tax benefits for oil companies.

Democrats are still waiting for the Bush promise of bi-partisanship to show itself. His first offer of cooperation was to resubmit five or six right-wing judicial nominees along with John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador. Bush couldn’t get these guys confirmed when his own party ran the Congress. Bolton, with his Yosemite Sam wild mustache and eyes to match, is a 21st century Col. Blimp with fewer diplomatic skills than Dennis Rodman. Bush sure knows how to stick it to the UN for refusing to accompany him in Iraq.

(The President can be excused for not paying too much attention to the UN or The Hill – after all, he still has Iraq to worry about and how to raise $500 million for his presidential library. Seems like a lot of money to house My Pet Goat.)

The media are having much more fun with Democrats back on center stage. For Fox News and Wall Street Journal editorial writers, Democrats are a blessing. Bashing Democrats gets the editorial juices flowing. For years they’ve had to defend the gaffes and policy disasters of the Bushies and the Frists and you can imagine how tiring that gets. There’s already new life in columnist George Will who recently attacked newly elected Virginia Sen. Jim Webb for blowing off Bush at a White House reception, calling Webb an “insufferable boor.” Defeated Sen. George Allen not only lost an election but his title as “insufferable boor.”

National Journal’s William Powers reported on the excitement among journalists for having Democrats back in control. “Democrats are always on the edge of comedy,” opined Powers. “There’s a madcap, Marx Brothers quality to this party.” He went on to observe (brilliantly, I thought) that “a divided government is full of the tensions that produce headlines. But a Democratic Congress is also anthropologically different from a Republican Congress—messier, louder, looser-lipped, more colorful, newsier, and, for the media class’s purposes, more fun.”

What a tribute. Makes you feel good to be a Democrat.