US Democrats take the House

[Kaka Tim]

Doesn't everyone draw their own conclusion from intelligence, thats hardly breaking the law.

Mears - you have just totally ignored mine and newharpers posts on how the Us and Uk goverments dilieberately misled the public - it is most defnintely NOT the case of them mistakenly drawing the 'wrong' interpretation of the intelligence.

Either engage with the points raised and in honest debate or fuck off back to freeperland.

 

[kyser_soze]

The French didnt believe the case for war, and refused to support it

Always an interesting one this - would they have been so 'principled' in their stance against the war had the US guaranteed the oil rights and money that TotalFina and Elf were owed, plus several 10s of billions in outstanding development loans and guaranteed post-war reconstruction contracts? Same goes for the Russians.

Altho obviously that's me being really, really cynical about M Chirac, 'the honest President', and that well known humanitarian and friend to the Muslim world, Vlad 'The Lad' Putin...

 

[Kaka Tim]

Always an interesting one this - would they have been so 'principled' in their stance against the war had the US guaranteed the oil rights and money that TotalFina and Elf were owed, plus several 10s of billions in outstanding development loans and guaranteed post-war reconstruction contracts? Same goes for the Russians.

Altho obviously that's me being really, really cynical about M Chirac, 'the honest President', and that well known humanitarian and friend to the Muslim world, Vlad 'The Lad' Putin...

Yes the championing by the more liberal sections of the anti-war movement of Chirac and Putin as principled anti-imperialist heroes standing up for the rule of law was pretty delusional. Clearly it was all about cynical self interest - they saw it (correctly IMHO) as an american oil grab and felt they would loose out - as well as (rightly) fearing the wider consequemces of an invaison for regional stability. Just becasue they're cunts it doesn't mean they aren't right. Or stupid. (obviously this doesn't apply to Bush and the PNACers who dropped real politic for self delusional dogma)

 

[kyser_soze]

Mears - on tort reform, are the Republicans merely seeking to limit the punitive damages awards or are they actually seeking to limit/prevent the whole notion of the class action suite? I mean it's obviously being done on behalf of their mates in business, but I'd be interested to know how far the intention is to take it...

 

[Ned Pointsman]

Is it possible to charge the Bush administration for not receiving UN Security Council approval to declare war on Iraq? Not in a US court and not when so many democrats voted for the war in the first place.

As they didnt declare war, as infact, neither your country nor mine has declared war in over 60 years, then probably not.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

The Escape of Karl Rove's Leather Slave:

It happened some time in the early dawn hours of this past Wednesday. It had truly been an epically joyful night for Karl Rove's leather slave. Karl Rove's leather slave had been kept, until then, chained to a radiator in the basement of the White House, just to the left of Grover Cleveland's striker-shooting rifle and under George H.W. Bush's signed photo of Osama bin Laden, with the inscription, "Thanks for the training in guerilla warfare. Yours always," now turned to face the wall.

On Tuesday night, as the returns dribbled in, Rove made a crazed promise to his leather slave ...

Rude Pundit (n.b. not worksafe)

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Interesting article on the beeb, suggesting that the Democrats victory was at least in part due to gaining support from 'moderate evangelicals'. I find that a bit worrying, because even moderate evangelicals seem irrational from my perspective and this means that the Dems are effectively committed to courting them now.

There is indeed a religious middle emerging - one that cannot be taken for granted by the Republicans and one the Democrats will have to court.

The Democrats have started that process by backing socially conservative candidates who talk about God.

The test will be whether those Democrats can pursue their agenda in Washington and help the party continue to win over an overwhelmingly religious electorate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6137208.stm

 

[TAE]

I would hope this is because evangelicals are discovering that the republican agenda is not necessarily the most christian (in a positive sense).

The born-again voters who backed the Democrats despite Republican rhetoric were most likely moderate evangelicals whose list of "moral issues" extended beyond abortion and gay marriage to include the environment and poverty.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Yep, that does seem to be the case, but there is a negative side to it. It means they have to toe certain lines or get hit with a Republican 'wedge strategy'. That almost certainly means they have to avoid annoying their new friends on issues like abortion, teaching evolution in schools, gay rights and so on.

On the larger question of what the "new" Democratic party coalition will primarily focus on, I expect Teles is mostly right. Nancy Pelosi, Bob Casey, and the Blue Dog Democrats can all work together as a party if they focus on good government and bread and butter issues, and put the hot button cultural issues on the back burner. That is what will help keep their coalition together.

Put another way, the Democratic policy agenda will be shaped by the Democratic coalition, in no small part because the Democratic coalition will be preserved or destroyed by the choice of Democratic policy agendas.

Republicans, one assumes, already have anticipated this strategy. They will do their best to put cultural wedge issues involving sexuality and religion on the public agenda, as they successfully did before in the past twenty five years. Because they don't have to keep their coalition together to govern, this will be somewhat easier to do. The question is whether the Democrats can control the policy agenda and move it away from these hot button cultural issues. If they can't do this, then they won't be able to keep their majority.

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