Party says it's time to stand and fight
WASHINGTON -- Democratic officials from around the country viewed President Bush's State of the Union speech last night as a rallying point for their own defeated party, which they are convinced is now well-positioned to make a comeback.
"I see lots of signs of hope that the Democrats are really going to turn themselves into an honest to goodness opposition party," said Elaine C. Kamarck, public policy lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, who was a top adviser to former vice president Al Gore. "And the crowning glory is Social Security. Throw us into that briar patch, please. The public trusts Democrats more than Republicans on Social Security."
"He threw the ball in our court," said Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party and a former state senator. "It was a healthy start for a debate. We need to play on that turf. This presents the Democrats with a challenge to come up with some ideas and alternatives."
The president's hour-long address touched on such pet domestic issues as tort reform, school standards, tax credits to expand health insurance coverage, a proposed guest worker program for immigrants, and federal spending cuts. But Democratic officials from a half-dozen states saw political red meat in the centerpiece of Bush's remarks: the reform of Social Security through the creation of voluntary personal retirement accounts.
They were less confident after this week's historic vote in Iraq that the Democratic Party is positioned to attack Bush over his strategies in Iraq.
Bush "is riding the tidal wave of the public's perception that Iraqis voted when there were predictions of death and you can barely get Americans out with predictions of rain," said Dennis Eckart of Cleveland, who formerly represented Ohio in Congress. "The Democrats' best hope is to say, 'Great platitudes -- where are the details?' The president is trying to convince folks that democracy and freedom are events, but democracy and freedom are processes."
Jerry Brown, the former California governor who is now mayor of Oakland, said Bush's speech probably resonated with voters. "There was an eloquence, but he's not opening up the hard choices facing the American people," Brown said. "This is not new stuff. In the late Roman republic, the leaders were quite adept at moving the populace. But that didn't stop the decline."
The president's speech was "high on euphemisms and high on patriotism," said Art Pulaski, chief AFL-CIO officer for California. Bush's proposed changes to Social Security, he added, "means everyone for themselves and people take their own risks. The challenge for the Democrats is to effectively tell the truth and break through those euphemisms."
Donnie Fowler, a South Carolina native who organized Michigan for Senator John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, said the Democrats need to make the case that "the real crisis is health care today, not Social Security down the road."
"The Democrats need to stand up and fight on the playing field we choose," said Fowler, who is running for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "They are falling into the trap of talking about what the Republicans want."
Some Democratic governors, however, were less combative toward Bush and his Social Security proposals. Earlier in the day, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association, said Washington politicians should "stop the partisan bickering."
Indeed, the growing ill will between the two sides of the aisle was evident last night, as Republican lawmakers repeatedly cheered the president and Democrats sat silent. 