Twelve years ago the Republican Party in the House issued its famous "Contract with America," stating what the House Republicans stood for. Newt Gingrich's troops went on to capture the House in the 94 elections, and have held it ever since. It is unlikely that those two facts have anything to do with one another. But the thought that the former might have contributed to the latter has entered the collective mind of House Democrats approaching this fall's election, and they have quite reasonably ignored it. Mort Kondracke, in Real Clear Politics, has the scoop:
The 12th anniversary of the Republicans' 1994 "Contract with America" came and went on Wednesday without a 2006 Democratic counterpart. And there won't be one.
Instead, Democratic House and Senate leaders held yet another press conference to denounce the Republican Congress' "rubberstamping the Bush administration's misguided agenda."
Despite repeated urging from various quarters, including from former President Bill Clinton, that the party needs to make clear what it stands for and not just against, Democrats contend that off-year elections are referenda on the party in power and that a Democratic alternative agenda would only provide targets for the GOP to attack.
The Democrats have it right, for more reasons than Kondracke mentions. To begin with, the Democrats are at this point congenitally incapable of forming a coherent agenda. The gulf between the "stand on your principles" wing, represented by the Kosacks, and the "do what you have to do to win," represented by folks who are actually running for office, is at present too broad for Evel Knievel to jump with a rocket scouter.
Secondly, they have neither the will nor the stamina to think through most of their policy preferences. Most Democratic Congresspersons would, I suspect, like to get out of Iraq right now. But what would happen if we did, and how would we deal with that? If they are thinking about that, they are doing so in private.
Finally, and most importantly, the Democrats realize that the only thing they have going for them in this election is a loss of confidence in Republican leadership. The last thing they want to do is draw any attention to themselves.
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