Is it Time for a Democratic Congress in 2006?

[Skyhunter]

According to a WSJ/NBC poll Americans want the Dem's to control congress.

Broadly, the telephone survey of 1,003 adults, which was conducted from Nov. 4 to Nov. 7, finds that Americans want Democrats to take control of Congress in next year's election, by a margin of 48% to 37%. The 11-point gap is the widest enjoyed by either party on that question since the poll began asking it in 1994.

For the first time since the Republican congressional landslide that year, a majority of respondents say it's time to replace their member of Congress. The poll has a margin for error of 3.1 percentage points.

Republicans sure are not helping their case any.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under fire for high fuel prices, five major oil companies on Wednesday warned the U.S. Senate against levying a windfall profits tax and showed little interest in donating money to help poor Americans pay winter heating bills.

The companies, which earned a collective $30 billion in the third quarter, also surprised lawmakers at a Senate hearing by saying they didn't need the billions of dollars in tax breaks and energy incentives recently approved by Congress.

It was unclear if the hearing would lead to any new energy laws or simply allow senators to express indignation at high prices.

Not even the oil companies are happy with all the tax breaks this Congress has lavished on them.

 

[Smurf]

by a margin of 48% to 37%

I think that study is effectively stupified.

 

[Art]

I think that study is effectively stupified.

What do you mean?

 

[Anttech]

The companies, which earned a collective $30 billion in the third quarter, also surprised lawmakers at a Senate hearing by saying they didn't need the billions of dollars in tax breaks and energy incentives recently approved by Congress.

Interesting

 

[Informal Logic]

Interesting

Maybe not - The oil companies prefer "just in time" production. Part of the subsidies would be to build more refineries, which would help allow for surplus production. Oil companies do not want surplus because that would result in lower fuel prices. And do not forget, such multinational companies are loyal to no government or people.

 

[BobG]

Question 10 of that survey is just as ominous as Question 9 (do you feel your representative deserves to be re-elected).

Usually, while people have negative feelings about the federal government in general and Congress, especially, they believe their own Congressmen are doing a good job (reflected in polls and by the fact that most incumbents are re-elected). About 50% said their vote for Congress was a message to the President in '98 and '02 with more using their vote to voice support for the President than to voice opposition.

In this poll, 51% feel its time to give someone else a chance to represent them in Congress and 60% of voters say their vote for Congress will be based on a desire to send a message to the President (21% using their vote for Congress to voice support for the President and 39% using their vote to voice opposition to Bush).

I think a bigger problem than Bush is that James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell seem to be in charge of the Republican Party (in fact, Bush might be just one consequence of this). Unless you're Baptist, you don't really have a place in the Republican Party anymore, nor do you have a place in a Democratic Party run by East Coast liberals - a little bit of a dilemma if you actually consider using your vote for Congress as a message. (In any event, the Democratic Party is pretty much non-existent around Colorado Springs.)

 

[Skyhunter]

I think a bigger problem than Bush is that James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell seem to be in charge of the Republican Party (in fact, Bush might be just one consequence of this). Unless you're Baptist, you don't really have a place in the Republican Party anymore, nor do you have a place in a Democratic Party run by East Coast liberals - a little bit of a dilemma if you actually consider using your vote for Congress as a message. (In any event, the Democratic Party is pretty much non-existent around Colorado Springs.)

I agree with you 90%. Maybe 100%, but I have to take your word on the political environment around Colorado Springs.

 

[loseyourname]

Colorado Springs belongs to James Dobson.

 

[Art]

Colorado Springs belongs to James Dobson.

I had to look up his bio to find out who he is. It seems he believes kids should be beaten into submission and gays can be 'cured' I've often wondered where these crackpots 'spring' from. Now I know. It's Colorado

 

[BobG]

I had to look up his bio to find out who he is. It seems he believes kids should be beaten into submission and gays can be 'cured' I've often wondered where these crackpots 'spring' from. Now I know. It's Colorado

I wasn't born here.

 

[Skyhunter]

I am optimistic.

My hopes are that as the neo-con wing of the Republican party loses it's grip on power, that the traditional Republicans will purge themselves of not only the neo-cons, but also the moderates that refused to take a stand against them. Aided and abetted, as it were.

There already seems to be an influx of new faces in the democratic party, and many traditional supporters of the Dem's are not happy with the DNC, which is why Howard Dean is the new head. A purge by the Repub's and perhaps we just might get some fresh thinkers involved in government. Perhaps enough people will be inspired to become politically involved that both parties will go through a transformation for the better.

 

[Astronuc]

If the local elections are any indication, the sentiment seems to be leaning Democratic for 2006. In several local elections, several democrats were elected in predominantly republican areas - in some cases, democrats were elected for the first time in more than 4 decades, and in same cases, first time ever!

Now a local republican representative blamed the national republicans. However, several local people voted against the incumbents based on poor performance.

The republican candidate for mayor of Albany, NY said during an interview that he was glad he lost, because Albany would soon blow up like Paris! If he was glad he lost, why did he want to run for mayor?

Meanwhile elsewhere -

FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley Runs for Congress

MONTGOMERY, Minn. (Nov. 12) - For better or worse, Coleen Rowley the candidate for Congress sounds a lot like Coleen Rowley the FBI whistleblower.

The former FBI agent who scathingly exposed the bureau's failure to uncover the Sept. 11 plot is running for a House seat in Minnesota in 2006 as a Democrat, and she is employing her fearlessly blunt style on the campaign trail.

"This was a lied-into war that is a quagmire now," the 50-year-old Rowley recently told a group of rural Democrats in a garage in this small town south of the Twin Cities. "It could be worse than Vietnam. The truth is we can't win, and there's still an ongoing deception."

Whether that kind of talk is smart politics is another matter.

The Democrats nationally are struggling with how to oppose the war without looking weak on national security, and some of them see Rowley's head-on attacks - as well as her trip to Texas in August to lend support to Cindy Sheehan's anti-war protest at President Bush's ranch _ as especially risky in the Republican-leaning 2nd Congressional District.

AP wire

It should be an interesting year in politics. I just hope the various candidates can rationally discuss issues and avoid hyperbole!

 

[Skyhunter]

It should be an interesting year in politics. I just hope the various candidates can rationally discuss issues and avoid hyperbole!

The problem with that is that the issues are so serious, and the actions of The administration, in respect to the Iraq war so outrageous,that it is hard to make a factual statement without sounding hyperbolic.

 

[Art]

I wasn't born here.

I wasn't getting at people from Colorado BobG it was just a pun on Colorado - Springs.

 

[Art]

I am optimistic.
My hopes are that as the neo-con wing of the Republican party loses it's grip on power, that the traditional Republicans will purge themselves of not only the neo-cons, but also the moderates that refused to take a stand against them. Aided and abetted, as it were.
There already seems to be an influx of new faces in the democratic party, and many traditional supporters of the Dem's are not happy with the DNC, which is why Howard Dean is the new head. A purge by the Repub's and perhaps we just might get some fresh thinkers involved in government. Perhaps enough people will be inspired to become politically involved that both parties will go through a transformation for the better.

If the transformation is genuine then it is good but didn't Bush senior get elected following a similar supposed transformation as a 'more compassionate conservative' than Reagan only to disappoint?

 

[Skyhunter]

If the transformation is genuine then it is good but didn't Bush senior get elected following a similar supposed transformation as a 'more compassionate conservative' than Reagan only to disappoint?

Something like;

"We got thousand points of light... for the homeless man"

"Got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand"

Neil Young

 

[BobG]

I wasn't getting at people from Colorado BobG it was just a pun on Colorado - Springs.

I know (just wanted to state if for the record, anyway. )

Actually, Colorado's in transition. They made the mistake of luring in all of these high tech IT companies and rocket manufacturers and what happens? Californians start to appear all over the place - it's like a plague of toads!

Colorado Springs is just transitioning slower than the rest - well, with the exception of all the cars driving around with "Focus on your own damn family!" bumper stickers.

 

[SOS2008]

Bush detours to campaign in Virginia governor's race
Reuters
Mon Nov 7, 2005 9:02 PM ET

With Bush's poll numbers plummeting and beset by problems like the war in Iraq, the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the indictment of a senior White House aide in the CIA leak probe, Democrats hoped the president's 11th-hour appearance for Kilgore would instead motivate their own supporters.

Some political analysts have suggested that even Republicans might try to distance themselves from Bush now that his job approval rating is at an all-time low.

Kilgore welcomed Bush as "a great leader for our commonwealth and for our country."

"We are only hours away of bringing conservative leadership back to Richmond," Kilgore said, as he introduced Bush to hundreds of cheering supporters at the airport rally.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-11-08T020242Z_01_SCH807296_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH.xml&archived=False

Some analysts say the 11th hour visit by Bush resulted in as much as a 2% point loss for Kilgore. Other fellow Republicans aren't taking chances.

MSNBC - 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for November 10

Republican lawmakers, reeling from Tuesday's election results in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races and the ballot props in California, many of them had already been avoiding the president. More may be doing so as a result.

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who's facing a tough reelection campaign next year, now planning to skip a Bush event in Pennsylvania tomorrow. Other Republicans, never accused of having close ties to Mr. Bush, no longer willing to keep their apparent disdain for the current administration under wraps.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10003274/

In regard to Bush's own possible recovery, this is a problem--the Republicans who never cared for him.

 

[Skyhunter]

In regard to Bush's own possible recovery, this is a problem--the Republicans who never cared for him.

I won't support any of them, that didn't stand up before. I want to see real leaders, the kind that do what is right when it isn't just politically expedient.