Democrats Need to Shape Message: Scandals, Investigations, Iraq....or Leadership

It only took two elections, but the Democratic strategy of "anything but Bush" has finally paid off. So what does all of this mean? Were the Democrats elected because of their policies or because of the massive failures of the Bush administration? Most people agree that it was a combination of the two. However, now that the Democrats have been elected and are in control of the house and have the possibility of controlling the Senate (at the time of writing this article, 2 seats were still undecided) they can't just sit back anymore and wait for the Republican's wheels to fall off like they did over the past 4 years.

The number of problems that happened to the Republican Party goes beyond the realm of possibility. First and foremost was Iraq, but then there was the Delay resignation, Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio resigning, the Abramhoff ties and of course top that off with the media frenzy over Rep. Mark Foley. If the Democrats had said nothing they would have been able to retake the House.

So what do the Democrats do now? Pelosi is ready to take over as Speaker of the House and has been a strong opponent of the Iraq war from the beginning and has been taking President Bush to task about his handling of the War. The Democrats now face a problem. They can choose from 3 options: (1) Spend the next two years investigation Bush and the Iraq War, (2) spend the next 2 years blaming Republican's for everything bad in this world and how they have to clean it up or (3) Work on the Democratic agenda of raising the minimum wage, negotiating Medicare drug prices, restricting lobbyists, etc that will resonate with voters.

Unfortunately we all know what is going to happen. We've seen it before and know its coming. The Democratic Party will get very little done and spend their entire time investigating Bush and the Iraq war and blaming Republican's for everything. Democrats of course are going to claim that they have an agenda that they will push for and I don't doubt that. However, the Democrats have been pushed around and ignored for the past 12 years in the house and are an angry bunch. This anger will overtake commonsense when it comes to policy making. The Republican Party is going to do everything it can to hold up the Democratic agenda, especially if they retain the Senate. The Senate will refuse to take up the same bills and ideas that the House will be pushing for or President Bush will veto the bills because most of those bills go against everything that Bush has worked towards over the past 6 years. Yes Presdient Bush called Nancy Pelosi to congratulate her on the Democratic victory, but that was a formality. Don't be fooled, Bush will not work with this congress. This will go on for a while until the Democrats get angry and put their focus on the problems that the Republican's and Bush have caused. They will try to claim that Republican's upheld their agenda so there was nothing else they could do, but will that work?

This is a dangerous area for the Democratic Party. They have an opportunity to take advantage of Republican mis-steps and improve the welfare of Americans. This opportunity cannot be ignored...it must not be ignored! If Democrats want to continue to build upon this foundation in 2008 and have a chance at the Presidency they need to keep their focus on issues that benefit all Americans instead of focusing on their hatred of the Republican Party. If they don't, this victory may be a short-lived one.