Democrats' Dithering Deepens

I listened to Sen. Joe Biden for the better part of an hour on Terry Gross’s “Fresh Air” on National Public Radio yesterday and it was a revelation. Not a happy one, mind you, but a relevation nonetheless.

Biden, the veteran Delaware Democrat and possible presidential candidate, is an all-around good guy, and I’ve followed his career closely since he came out of nowhere to upset a long tenured Republican in 1972 only to have tragedy strike when his wife and daughter were killed and his two sons critically injured when their car was t-boned by a speeding motorist. I have driven through that intersection, which is not too far from Kiko’s House, many times and invariably think of Biden’s loss.

Biden decided to refuse to be sworn in so he could stay at home as his sons recuperated, but was talked out of that by his future mentor, Sen. Mike Mansfield, the legendary Democrat from Montana, and his own father, who was a friend of my parents and another all-around good guy.

Biden went on to be sworn in, but returned home to his sons from the Capitol every night. He continues to commute from his Delaware home to this day.

So I know a thing or two about Joe Biden. It matters less that, for the most part, he stands for what I stand for. It's because he’s made of sturdy stuff and is the real deal in a town full of phonies. (It doesn't hurt that his hair weave has been remarkably successful, but I digress.)

More to the subject, Biden has been a rare voice of thoughtful dissent in an era when President Bush, his administration and Republican congressional majority have pretty much had their way with the Dems, including effectively painting them as cowardly on national security issues.

But as Biden and Gross segued from the war in Iraq to nukes in Iran to the NSA spying program controversy to domestic politics to his own presidential aspirations, I was struck by how he was quick to criticize Bush but unable to offer concrete alternatives to the status quo beyond trite but wishy-washy comments like the need for the next president to be a uniter and not, as Bush has excelled in doing, a divider. (To read a transcript or listen to the interview, go here.)

So this, my friends, is the Democrats’ biggest problem as they slouch toward the mid-term elections: The whole bunch of them, including Biden, are unable to effectively exploit the Republicans’ many vulnerabilities because they don’t have diddly to offer in the way of alternatives.

(In a happy coincidence, the New York Times amplifies on this sore subject in an article today that is being criticized in the liberal blogosphere as being too tough in the Dems. To that I say "bullsh*t.")

So why are Democrats still so at sea?

The easy answer is that the party has historically embraced views of all sorts and welcomed internal debate and dissent as a healthy byproduct of representing the public interest. Meanwhile, the Republican Party (at least since the 1994 Gingrich revolution) has marched to the same beat and gone so far as to punish its own for dissenting. The Democrats can’t stay on message; the Republicans do so relentlessly, and that has obviously worked as many traditional Dems have defected to the GOP.

But that’s not the half of it.

There has been a paucity of fresh, timely and pertinent ideas from Biden and other leading Dems to derail the Republican message machine. Name one. . . .

See what I mean?

This is turn brings up another problem: To my eyes, the “leading Dems” are a pretty sorry lot once you get beyond Biden, whose own electability is problematic. He's from Nowheresville and is strongest in foreign affairs, whereas methinks the Democrats' best chance to make inroads in November, let alone regaining the White House in 2008, rests squarely with their being able to articulate a strong domestic message.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean is a divider, not a uniter, and an intemperate fruitcake, to boot. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is a windbag. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can seem like a caricature of the dithering liberal, which she often is. John Kerry and Al Gore, who ran two of the worst presidential campaigns since Michael Dukakis, bring little to the table and should shut up. Please!

Polls show that most Americans think the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction. That also would seem to include the Democratic Party.

Andrew Sullivan, drawing on the Times article, puts it this way:

Let me find that tiny violin. It's around here somewhere. I'm not a Democrat and don't think I ever could be, but here's what I'd say if I were in opposition right now. These guys are corrupt and incompetent. They have screwed up the Iraq war, turned FEMA into a joke and landed the next generation with a mountain of debt. We're for making the homeland safer, winning back our allies, and taking on the Iranian dictatorship. We're for energy independence, universal healthcare and balancing the budget again. Now, let Rove do his worst. Hey, we need Democrats who relish the fight, not timid ones who cower at the prospect. Bring back the happy warriors. Please.

While Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum offers this prescription for the Dems:

These guys are corrupt and incompetent. They have screwed up the Iraq war, turned FEMA into a joke and landed the next generation with a mountain of debt. We're for making the homeland safer, winning back our allies, and taking on the Iranian dictatorship. We're for energy independence, universal healthcare and balancing the budget again.