The left is driving the Democrats down

Donald Lambro:

Worsening disapproval scores for the Democrats in Congress have spawned party-wide fears that voter alienation could give Republicans a chance to make a comeback in 2008.

The Democrats' tumbling voter-approval numbers haven't drawn much attention on the nightly news shows, but they have stirred warnings in the party's inner circles and raised hopes among GOP strategists for the first time since last year's election rout drove them from power.

A string of independent polls in the past two weeks tells the story: -- A nationwide Pew Research Center poll found that barely 33 percent of Americans surveyed "approve of the job performance of the Democratic Congress." Equally disturbing to Democrats, their party's leadership "can claim just a 62 percent approval score among Democrats."

-- The Gallup Poll reported "that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Democrats in Congress."

These and other internal polls have sent tremors through Democratic ranks, and campaign strategists are warning their party to start taking them seriously before it's too late.

"Democrats should not be for complacency in the face of lost trust in Congress and perceptions that the new Congress is not effective or honoring its pledges," party advisers James Carville and Stan Greenberg warned in a midyear strategy memo to Democratic leaders.

Republican numbers are not any better. But the "Democrats should not relish an increasingly alienated electorate on any grounds; increasing alienation from both parties can drive down turnout and create protest voters looking for other vehicles for change," the two strategists said.

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One of the things that is driving their numbers down is their Kamikaze base which is angry that they have not been more successful at losing the war in Iraq. They have been driving them over that cliff at a time when the situation in Iraq is proving their predictions wrong about the surge. I predict that they will be even angrier this fall when the results of the surge are reported that will make it even more politically impossible for the Democrats to impose a defeat on our war effort. The more the base gets angrier with the party leadership the more they will alienate the middle which will support a victory in Iraq. such an outcome will be a disaster for teh anti war left and for the party leadership.