Democrat blame game

E.J. Dionne:

Congressional Democrats need a Plan B.

Republicans chortle as they block Democratic initiatives -- and accuse the majority of being unable to govern. Rank-and-filers are furious their leaders can't end the Iraq War. President Bush sits back and vetoes at will.

Worse, Democrats are starting to blame each other, with those in the House wondering why their Senate colleagues don't force Republicans to engage in grueling, old-fashioned filibusters. Instead, the GOP kills bills by coming up with just 41 votes. Senators defend themselves by saying that their House colleagues don't understand how the august "upper" chamber works these days.

If Bush's strategy is to drag Congress down to his low level of public esteem, he is succeeding brilliantly. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released earlier this week found that only 33 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of his job -- and just 32 percent felt positively about Congress' performance. The only comfort for Democrats: The public dislikes Republicans in Congress (32 percent approval) even more than it dislikes congressional Democrats (40 percent approval).

The Democrats' core problem is that they have been unable to place blame for gridlock where it largely belongs, on the Republican minority and the president.

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Dionne's suggestion is that the Democrats be more effective at blaming Republicans for Democrat ineptitude and bad ideas. Incredibly he wants them to continue their desperation for defeat in Iraq which has to be one of the most ridiculous ideas he has. We are winning. the public is slowly recognizing that we are winning and that Democrats have been wrong about the war for the last year and he wants the Democrats to go out and remind the voters how wrong they have been. I hope they follow his advice.

The fact is that the Democrats were destined to fail from the moment they won, because of how they won. Without the conservatives elected in Republican leaning districts the Democrats would still be a minority party. The way Pelosi has sought to govern is suicidal for these conservative Democrats. As for the Senate, the Republicans are merely doing what Harry Reid did for the two years before the 2006 election. The Dionne approach would just be more evidence of Democrat hypocrisy.