By standing up to conservative obstructionists, congressional Dems reverse their slide in the polls

[marmar]

By Bill Scher at TomPaine.com:


Submitted by Bill Scher on July 24, 2007 - 11:06am.

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum, looking at filibuster stats from McClatchy Newspapers showing conservatives taking obstruction to new heights, writes:

...the number of filibusters has been relatively steady since 1986 — until this year, when Republicans found themselves in the minority for the first time in a decade and decided to throw an unprecedented temper tantrum about it. If they keep things going at their current pace, they'll have conducted 153 filibusters by the end of 2008, compared to the previous record of 58.

Drum notes their motivation:

...a desperate desire to kill popular legislation quietly (the press doesn't spend much time reporting on routine filibusters) rather than force President Bush to kill popular legislation in full public view (the press does report on presidential vetoes).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, trying to take advantage of the media’s passivity, is actively trying to avoid responsibility for blocking popular legislation.

On CNN Sunday, he shamelessly attacked the Senate leadership: “the American people are looking at this Congress and saying, where's the legislation? What are you going to do to make America better?”

He never mentioned he has led every filibuster preventing bills from heading to the president’s desk.

But such blame-shifting may be getting harder.

Last week marked the first time this year when legislation wasn't killed quietly, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forced conservatives to filibuster Iraq legislation all night long.

Did that make a difference in public perception? Perhaps.

A new ABC/Washington Post poll, conducted last week during and after the filibuster, asked the public their opinion of Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

Approval of congressional Democrats went up 2 points to 46%, reversing a 10-point slide between April and June. Meanwhile, approval of congressional Republicans dropped 2 points to 34%. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/reversing_slide?tx=3

[zonmoy]

1. hopefully the democrats are finally figuring out that getting a backbone

and standing up to these fascists is actually the thing that might get them elected assuming that there is an election.

[AndyA]

3. You mean the opposing party should...*GASP*...oppose?

What sheer genius!

:sarcasm:

It would seem to me that the road for the Dems to take is clear. Go the opposite way of the GOP. Impeach. Investigate. Demand accountability.

That's what will reverse the sinking poll numbers, and get them elected in 2008, but they don't seem to be smart enough to figure that out.

[zonmoy]

4. either that or they are simply too corrupted by the same rot that has

consumed the republican party or they are simply too cowardly or all of the above.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The voters like guts and are turned off by wimpiness

They don't always care so much about a politician's actual positions so much as the feeling that the politician can be trusted to stand up for his or her ideals in a consistent and forthright manner.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. k&r. In the article linked in the OP, I found most interesting a link to the numbers of

filibusters each Congressional term since 1963-4.

In the entire last 2 years the Democrats were in the minority (2005-2006), Democrats filibustered 52 times. During just the first 25 percent of the current term, Republicans have filibustered 42 times. Seems to me DUers and elected Democrats should be keeping careful track of the running Republican filibuster count, and inserting it into most every political argument.

See http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/18218.html for the filibuster numbers as of July 18th.