Democrats Fighting Back

Whenever Republicans get in trouble, their first reaction is to blame the other guy. Jack Abramoff has been a Republican operative and lobbyist for over twenty years years but the media got conned into selling the line for a few weeks that the Abramoff scandal was a bipartisan affair when it was clear to anybody paying attention that it was a wholly Republican-funded operation. Progressive blogs and the Democrats finally got the record straight, much to the embarrassment of newspapers like The Washington Post. But the games continue and the media often refuses to give Democrats credit for doing their job. Kevin Drum of The Washington Monthly argues, along with Amy Sullivan, that the Democrats in Congress are beginning to be more effective:

...Democrats have actually been surprisingly united and effective over the past year despite their minority status and the media's insistence on pushing their favored storyline of Dems as hopelessly divided and timid. The reality is that the sell-by date on that storyline expired long ago.

Consider. Democrats successfully killed a Social Security privatization plan that nearly everyone thought was a lock for passage. Harry Reid forced the Intelligence Committee to investigate prewar intelligence by shutting down the Senate. Nancy Pelosi worked shrewdly with Jack Murtha to give him the maximum possible attention for his pro-withdrawal message. (Yes, really.) George Miller single-handedly forced George Bush to rescind his suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act following Hurricane Katrina. And Chuck Schumer was the driving force behind criticism of the Dubai port deal.

So why don't Democrats get more credit? Louise Slaughter, a feisty Democrat who led the opposition to Ethics Committee rule changes last year, blames it on journalists who simply refuse to abandon their favored narratives...

If it weren't for Democrats, Bush and his fellow Republicans would be digging a deeper hole for this country than they already are. But the Democrats need more clout to hold Bush and other Republicans accountable. Democrats may or may not win a majority in Congress this fall, but even a small increase of Democrats this fall will make it easier to stop the worst nonsense that has been seen in Washington in several generations. Given the seriousness of Bush's failures, it would help the nation if the mainstream media would bring an end to their tall tales about Democrats, tall tales that have been provided courtesy of partisan Republicans who aren't much interested in discussing the issues affecting this nation or helping average hardworking Americans.