And the Pounding Begins

What did leadership do in the first day back? Schedule an embarrassment.

Nevertheless, Democrats are feeling the pressure of being viewed as a do-nothing majority. In a show of bipartisanship, and perhaps an indication of desperation, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have sent a letter to President Bush requesting a meeting on the economy. The Democratic leadership is hoping to hold a grand meeting prior to announcing a stimulus package - hoping, no doubt, to both pass an important piece of legislation and to take credit for initiating a bipartisan effort.

"It's a bad situation. You have a polarized Congress with several members of Congress running for the presidency and an institutional battle that's been taking place between the president and the Congress. It's a recipe for not legislating," says Julian Zelizer, a congressional historian at Princeton University in New Jersey. "That said, there's room for Congress to find a [legislative] package that works in everybody's political interest."

This is why historians as pundits are usually so wrong about the current state of affairs. They have no idea what the current political climate is like and they have no idea what it's like to live in America in the middle class. We're back to the days just after Henry Clay politically and economically. There isn't a way to find a 'package that works in everybody's political interest'. The Republicans have nothing to gain from such a deal. Here's why:

1. George Bush is a lame duck. His people have no hope that he'll end his reign liked. He'll stay hated and everybody knows it.
2. GOP is playing major defense in these elections.

Open Seats
Republicans
1. (CA-52) Duncan Hunter
2. (IL-18) Ray LaHood
3. (MS-03) Chip Pickering
4. (OH-15) Deborah Pryce
5. (IL-14) Dennis Hastert
6. (AZ-01) Rick Renzi
7. (MN-03) Jim Ramstad
8. (IL-11) Jerry Weller
9. (AL-02) Terry Everett
10. (NM-01) Heather Wilson
11. (OH-16) Ralph Regula
12. (OH-07) David Hobson
13. (NM-02) Steve Pearce
14. (LA-01) Bobby Jindal
15. (CO-06) Tom Tancredo
16. (NJ-03) Jim Saxton
17. (WY-AL) Barbara Cubin
18. (NJ-07) Michael Ferguson
19. (LA-04) Jim McCrery
20. (MS-01) Roger Wicker
21. (PA-05) John Peterson
22. (CA-04) John Doolittle
23. (LA-04) Richard Baker

Democrats
1. (CO-02) Mark Udall
2. (ME-01) Tom Allen
3. (NY- 21)Mike McNulty
4. (NM-03) Tom Udall
5. (IN-07) OPEN – Julia Carson
6. (CA-12) Tom Lantos

How do you defend against that? The GOP Presidential race is leaving so many rank and file Republicans disappointed and beggared for a party savior. There will be no coattails, there is only something to run against - namely Hillary and the Dem'rat Congress.

What does the GOP have to gain from working with us? Nothing! The only way they gain politically is to not work. Literally. They want nothing to get done. That is the only thing they have to run on, the attempt to say the Democratic Congress has been do-nothing and filled with pork barrel spending for liberal causes like buying Cadillacs for welfare crack-mothers.

The Republicans merely need to keep whispering to reporters that partisanship is so bad now that Dems are in control, that, sniff they wanna cry sometimes. This will keep the media scolding Democrats for not being bipartisan enough.

The other thing Republicans need to do is simple: as little as possible.

Democratic Congressional Leadership needs to make the case that what America needs is more and feistier Democrats. We need to point out that the Republicans are wrong.

This Reid/Pelosi meeting with Bush on 'common ground' and the wasting of precious time with Chris Shay's inane baseball questions is not how it is done.