Posted on 06/16/2005 4:14:58 PM PDT by Libloather
Dean dishes out dirt in US Democrat fight to get a message out
Thu Jun 16,11:23 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic party leaders have scored important points in their battle against the Republican White House, but they are not getting a convincing message across to American voters, experts said.
Even the acerbic attacks of new Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean are failing to fire up the public against an administration that is struggling to get key policies passed and top officials confirmed.
"They have done somewhat better than one might have expected in the first 150 days of President George W. Bush's second term, but a lot of that has to do with Bush's problems rather than great strategy and eloquence on the part of the Democrats," said Stephen Hess, a politics specialist at the Brookings Institution think tank.
A Washington Post/ABC poll published last week said that 53 percent believe the Democrats are not interested in the major problems facing the country.
Bush faced the same criticism from 58 percent of those polled, while the Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, were disapproved by 59 percent.
Bush's reelection to a second term in November also saw the Democrats lose seats in Congress. But the party has kept up pressure on the White House through a political guerrilla campaign.
It has held up the confirmation of Bush's nomination to become US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. The president is also struggling to convince the country to back his reform of the Social Security pension system.
Hess said that the fall of Bush and the Republicans in opinion polls is more to do with the president's performance than the Democrats'.
He said that as an opposition party, the Democrats have only been "consistent" and cannot yet have high hopes of taking back the Senate or House of Representatives. A third of the 100 seat Senate will be renewed in mid-term elections in 2006 and both sides are already busy fundraising.
The firebrand Dean took over as party chairman in February with the task of reinvigorating Democrats after their last election failure. His outspoken comments have at least kept the party on the front pages though Hess said Dean has become something of a "liability."
The ultra-liberal former Vermont governor -- once a frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination -- has made several inflammatory remarks.
Last week, he outraged conservatives by saying the Republicans were unfriendly. "They're a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same, and they all look the same. It's pretty much a white, Christian party," he told a political gathering.
Before that he raised eyebrows by calling the Republicans "mean" and in other remarks he avowed to "hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
Even some Democrats are shocked at Dean's tactics. "He doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric. I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats," said Senator Joseph Biden, an elder party statesman.
Republicans have fired back with some Dean-like comments. "I think Howard Dean is over the top. I've never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I've never met anybody who does," declared Vice President Dick Cheney.
But the leader of House Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, senses Republican opportunism in the dispute over Dean.
"The fact is that the Republicans are trying to make a lot of hay out of Governor Dean's remarks because they are failing to meet the needs of the American people," she told a press conference.
The RATS' biggest problem may be the fact that the message IS getting out - loud and clear...
Please no more "unamed experts" stories.
"unamed experts" is a way for a paper to print whatever it wants. If they need to produce the "unamed experts" which won't ever happen, all they need is two people on their editorial staff. The definition of expert is pretty loose.
Whoever wrote this garbage, won't even sign their name.
Tells me a lot about where this stuff is originating from.
AP must be on the DNC's fax list.
Is this a news story or a fax from the DNC?
It's not our fault we're stupid. It's the "mean, old, rich, white, Christian" Republicans and President Bush who are making us look stupid.
later read
What Republican is making "a lot of hay"? I have not heard one say anything publicly. As far as I can tell most are grateful Dean is the chair and want him to keep it up.
I think by '08 the Democratic Party will be dissolved and the new Liberals will be today's RINOs, thanks in part to this clown and Durbin as well.
What kind of a doctor is he anyway? I'm guessing a proctologist.
That would be an act of self-analysis.
Democrats are mad at Dean because he's revealing the truth about the modern Democrat Party: they're a bunch of race-baiting, America-blaming, faith-phobic demagogues.
The story is based on a Q&A with Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, a liberal hangout, and some polling data. Not much cred, but not exactly an anonymous hatchet job either.
What? They don't use the word "controversial?" The AP is really a bunch of Democrat hacks pretending to distribute news.
The pollsters are missing the boat on a very important demographic group.
There are a significant number of people who are POd about the lax policy on illegal immigrants. If the negatives are 55%, a significant portion of those are mad about illegal aliens. That doesn't mean they are going to vote for Democrats in the next election.
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