Dems Plan to Start '06 with Stupid Strategy

This is good news for the GOP plans for the '06 elections. The Dems plan a major push against Bush on the issue of privacy. In other words, they're going to trumpet their opposition to the NSA program which is approved by 64% of Americans:

Democrats on Capitol Hill are drafting a strategy to attack the Bush administration and Republicans as having little regard for the privacy of Americans.

"We will initiate at the beginning of this year one of the most serious debates and discussions on Capitol Hill in our history about individual rights and liberties," Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin said just before Christmas.

The topic will be a major focus of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of federal Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as privacy rights -- the political code phrase for abortion rights -- already has become a major issue, Mr. Durbin said.

Democratic leaders then plan to keep the issue alive as they continue their opposition to key parts of the USA Patriot Act, which is set to expire in early February unless extended.

But the real payoff, Democrats say, will be the hearings into President Bush's authorization of warrantless spying on terror suspects. Already, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, said he wants to hold hearings on the matter.

"Senator Specter has promised a hearing on the questions that have been raised about eavesdropping and spying on Americans," Mr. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said. "At the same period of time, we will be debating those same issues in the context of the Patriot Act and the war on terrorism."

Democratic aides say privately that while it remains a high goal to win control over the House or Senate in the November elections, they think the issue will resonate with voters.

Centrist Democrats, however, warn that such a strategy could backfire.

The centrists are right, and in fact this issue has already hurt the Dems. And what is the real reason behind the emphasis on "privacy"? Abortion, which is defined as one of those mysterious privacy rights that the Supreme Court found in the Constitution. The Dems hope to link the two, and I guarantee you it will be a major focus of the Alito hearings.

Bring it on.