Among TIME's People Who Mattered in 2006: The Winning Team: Reid, Schumer, Emanuel & Pelosi

[DeepModem Mom]

The Winning Team: Reid, Schumer, Emanuel & Pelosi
How They Turned It Around in November

When NBC canceled The West Wing last January, Jay Leno quipped, "You know things are bad when even fictional Democrats aren't doing well." In less than a year, however, four Democratic leaders took the party from punch line to power, capturing both chambers of Congress in November's midterm elections. It was the biggest Washington upset since the Republican revolution of 1994. How did they do it? San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi, 66, who will become the first female Speaker of the House, kept the spotlight on G.O.P. ethics scandals and Iraq, not herself, neutralizing Republican charges of liberalism and national-security weakness. The former amateur boxer and Nevada centrist Harry Reid, 67, picked the right fights in the Senate, blocking the most controversial Bush appointees, while ducking many of the no-win national-security battles the Republicans launched.

Out in the country, it was Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, 48, and New York Senator Charles Schumer, 56, the field marshals for the House and Senate campaigns, who drove the Democratic victory, recruiting strong candidates and raising more than $300 million. Both showed cold-eyed skill: Schumer, long a backer of abortion rights, picked a pro-life candidate to take out Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum, the Senate's third-ranking Republican; Emanuel spent heavily against scandal-tainted incumbents, winning surprise victories in normally safe districts from California to New York. The most important thing all four did? As the Republicans reeled from policy failures and ethics scandals, the gang of four knew when to let them collapse on their own and when to give them a push. Keeping their own balance now will be harder, especially in a closely divided Senate. "We need to prove to the American people we are prepared to lead and ready to govern," says Pelosi.

— By Massimo Calabresi

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2006/people/13.html


(CHRISTOPHER MORRIS/VII FOR TIME)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. of course

Rahm's PR staff has been working on overtime, I see.

NOTHING about Dean? hah!
Yes, Rahm worked hard, he twisted arms, and gathered money and he is entitled to some thanks. But, despite some of his huge blunders, we still prevailed.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. You noticed?

I did too.

[terrya]

3. That's a shocking oversight....

if it is an oversight....

Howard Dean deserves a huge round of applause for his efforts this November. The success of the Democrats in November is largely due to him. He's been a terrific DNC Chairman.

[ljm2002]

8. Right, nothing about Dean...

...because let's face it, regardless of party, the Beltway insiders are scared shitless of populists. That's because they're scared shitless of the great unwashed. They think of the mass of people out there as a mob. It's part of why we can't make headway even within the Democratic Party at times -- they've bought into the corporatist, elitist, Beltway-bubble mindset.

Dean blew a hole in it and you can still hear the hissing as the air flows out.

Go Dean! Go rank and file!! Go bloggers!!!

[rox63]

4. Where's Dean?

This year's election victories were largely because of Dean's 50-state strategy.

[Vidar]

5. Personally I give Dean a lot more credit than Emmanuel & Shumer, but

consider the source.

[mdmc]

6. HOWARD DEAN!

:kick:

[leftofthedial]

7. Emanuel was nearly as big a LOSER as the repukes in 2006.

laughably inept analysis

or is it propaganda?