Letting the Other Guy Shoot Himself

Howard Fineman writes

President George W. Bush started 2005 in triumph, with lofty poll numbers, sweeping goals, a tightened grip on both houses of Congress and a united Republican Party. Now those numbers are falling, his domestic programs are in trouble and the GOP is increasingly divided and wary of igniting an Armageddon-like confrontation with the Democrats over rules by which the Senate votes on presidential nominees for the federal bench. "Some of our guys are getting a little bit nervous," said a GOP strategist with close ties to Bush. "And with good reason."

The Democrats have kept a pretty low profile since the election. The lack of a constant partisan war to fight has given the Republicans the freedom to show their true colors. The last few months have seen the Republicans bend over backward to defend and stand behind ethics challenged Tom Delay and increasing strain within the party between the more classic conservatives and the religious right. The result has been dropping poll numbers for the president and his party.

I am reminded of Bill Clinton's strategy after the 1994 election disaster. When the Republicans came in in 1995, Clinton took a low profile and let them have the stage. In their zeal to pursue fairly extreme policies, then tied their own noose. Clinton roared back to life later in the year and never looked back, the Republicans in Congress having neutralized themselves.

Politically, this is a good strategy, for a time. At some point, the Democrats have to step back out and show leadership. This has been lacking in the Congress since Clinton left the White House. The party has not shown any backbone in dealing with Bush, going all the way back to the tax cuts. In the current debate on Social Security, the Democrats are celebrating the apparent defeat of the president's privatization plan, but have offered nothing in response. The issue is still very real, yet the Democrats in Congress are doing nothing to solve it. To exploit the Republican hari kari, the Democrats have to show strong leadership. It's time.