E.J. Gets Rope-a-Doped

E.J. Dionne, columnist for the Washington Post, has been lamenting the Dems failure to capitalize on the problems of Bush and the Republicans. Knowing the success that the GOP had in '94 with the Contract With America, E.J. contacted a couple of prominent Republicans who played a big role back then and asked them how the GOP managed to overturn Congress the way they did. Looking at their answers, and E.J.'s enthusiasm about them, I think they rope-a-doped him:

The false premise is that oppositions win midterm elections by offering a clear program, such as the Republicans' 1994 Contract with America. I've been testing this idea with such architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution as former Rep. Vin Weber and Tony Blankley, who was Newt Gingrich's top communications adviser and now edits the Washington Times' editorial page.

Both said the main contribution of the contract was to give inexperienced Republican candidates something to say once the political tide started moving the GOP's way. But both insisted that it was disaffection with Bill Clinton, not the contract, which created the Republicans' opportunity -- something former Sen. Bob Dole said at the time.

The Democrats' real problem is that they have failed to show that their critique of the Republican status quo is the essential first step toward an alternative program.

In other words, it doesn't matter if the Dems come up a program and plan for America, it just matters that they continue harping against the president and the GOP. That, in Dionne's view, will win them control of Congress. As E.J.'s calls it, this is the power of negative thinking.

You have to ask yourself, E.J. why would these prominent Republicans be offering you advice on how the Dems can win back Congress? Wake up the smell the tofu, E.J. Blankley and Weber played you like a cheap violin. If the Dems follow your suggestion, they'll wake up on the morning after the election and find themselves still firmly in the minority in both Houses, and no better positioned for '08 (which would be perfectly fine with me).

Still, I don't want to get in the way of the Dem trainwreck, so I'll let E.J. close this with his advice to the party:

Thus, the real shortcoming of Democratic leaders is not that they don't have a program, but that they have not yet persuaded opinion-makers that fighting bad policies can be a constructive thing to do -- and that keeping matters from getting worse is sometimes the most positive alternative on offer.

Yeah, that's the ticket!