"part completely horrified, and another part completely energized"

[Capn Sunshine]

The post-medicare vote has many scratching their heads at all levels of the party. There is a definite problem afoot; the dog and pony show distractions and subsequent balkanizing of the party known as the primary season have just claimed a victim.

"Democrats have owned the Medicare issue for nearly 40 years. But this week, the Republicans climbed into the driver's seat and mashed the gas pedal. In closed-door sessions that excluded nearly all Democrats, through rule-bending roll calls, dishing out goodies to friends and twisting arms of the recalcitrant, the Republicans passed $400 billion worth of changes. Democrats spent the day picking carpet fibers out of their hairdos and sorting out their reactions.
<snip>
Longtime party strategist Harold Ickes was at a loss to see any upside to a Republican victory in an area Democrats have always owned. He said he was flabbergasted that key Democratic senators, led by John Breaux (La.) and Max Baucus (Mont.), went along with it.


"It's totally beyond me," Ickes said. "I think it has seriously undermined our ability to change occupants of the White House next year. Republicans will make it sound like they invented Medicare. That's a big piece of political real estate to give up."


"There's clearly an absence of forceful leadership at the top of the Senate," Borosage said. "In the Senate we saw the difference between the other side's discipline and our lack of it, and I think Democrats are disappointed in the extreme." For some, the experience was another milepost in the process of coming to terms with life outside of power. That old friend of many decades, the muscular AARP, entered the Medicare battle -- on the other side. The wily and experienced Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) had his pocket picked. It was humiliating."It's an odd dynamic," said Eric Hauser, a strategist on the party's liberal wing. "When I came to Washington in the mid-'80s, the idea that Democrats ran things was just like the sun coming up in the east. Now, with each passing year, Democrats are less relevant."

THIS IS WHAT THIS PARTISAN CANDIDATE POLITICS BUYS YOU. WAKE UP EVERYBODY.
excerpts from a WAPO piece by David Von Drelhele I'm looking for the link!

[Capn Sunshine]

1. non partisan kick

:kick:

[ozymandius]

2. It does make one wonder how Daschle justifies his existence.

I remember all those TV commercials Max Cleland aired in which he gleefully stated how "he was working closely with President Bush" - as though that would give him an edge over his Republican opponent. Nevertheless, the Republican won over a Democrat who ran as a quasi-Republican. Yet, despite this, we seem to have some Democrats who feel there is political yardage to be gained by granting Republicans bragging rights on a traditionally Democratic issue.

It does make me wonder evermore what sway the Senate's Democratic leader has over his party members. I also scratch my head in wonder over what reasonable advantage Senators (like Diane Feinstein) will glean by surrendering over such a controversial issue. (Will they air campaign commercials declaring that they were "working closely with President Bush"?)

[Capn Sunshine]

3. and I wonder about Feinstein's defection as well

what quid is she getting for the quo?

[ozymandius]

4. Ya wanna know something, Capn?

I am totally surprised that they did not take a voice vote on this bill. Like the $87 billion Iraq aid package, this could be equally devastating to a campaign. Feinstein says that she supported this bill so that doctors in CA will get a moral and economic boost. I am inclined to think that her motives were not entirely altruistic.

[kentuck]

5. They don't know why they are Democrats....

They have morphed into Repubs and are a disaster for our Party. They did not have the foresight to see the damage they were doing.

[ozymandius]

6. Do you really think it is a lack of foresight?

I mean, these are smart people. It would strike me as being very odd that these Dems who willingly lurch towards disaster by pushing a Repub initiative would wear blinders.