Democrats set an agenda they can agree on

WASHINGTON -- Democrats are poised to fan out across the country today to tout their ``Six for '06" agenda -- a series of easily digestible policy proposals that party leaders hope will help them shed their reputation for diluting their positions with maddening complexity and nuance.

Taking inspiration from the Republicans' 1994 ``Contract With America," Democrats have reduced their policy proposals to a series of short, pithy promises that challengers can offer as the party's vision in an election they want to be determined by national trend lines and issues.

``People want to know what we stand for, but they don't want an 80-page tome," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ``They want to know, `If you get in power, what are you going to do?' That's what we're telling them."

As Congress wraps up much of its substantive work for the year and heads off on its long August recess, Democratic leaders say the platform is helping them achieve an unusual level of unity for a party long derided as lacking cohesion.

They contrast that with Republicans, who are entering the summer break with a thin record of legislative accomplishments and deep discord on hot-button issues such as immigration, the minimum wage, and stem-cell research.

``Six for '06" focuses primarily on domestic policy, with proposals including a higher minimum wage, tax deductions and lower interest rates on student loans, and expanded research on embryonic stem cells. Various Democrats have offered extensive legislation in each of those areas, but the party agenda does not choose between them.

Democrats have also been filling out their platform with foreign-policy planks that seem to overcome the party's history of getting lost in details. Earlier this year, they quickly condemned a proposal by a Dubai-owned company to take over control of six US ports, ultimately forcing President Bush to back down on the issue .

Last week, Democrats offered an aggressive and unequivocal reaction to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Washington: They demanded that Maliki declare his support for Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah, shifting the tenor of a visit Republicans hoped would boost public support for the Iraq war.

House and Senate Democratic leaders on Monday came together on a proposal to begin immediate troop withdrawals from Iraq, giving them a party-endorsed message on an issue that has exposed deep divisions among Democrats. ``It was a long journey, but timing is everything in this business," said Senate minority whip Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois.

Durbin said Democrats are aware that, in the past, they have allowed policy details to stymie efforts to communicate goals. During months of conversations among members of Congress, governors, mayors, and officials with the Democratic National Committee, party leaders sought to winnow their list of policy goals to a small number of broad proposals, he said.

Durbin said Democrats drew lessons from the Republican ``Contract With America," which laid out 10 concrete and easily understood proposals that Republicans promised to vote on if they won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections. The GOP gained control of both the House and Senate that year .

``They created a vision of America -- what would happen if we would take over the Congress," he said. ``We wanted to make sure that when it was over the six positions were concise, understandable, and attainable. If we're fortunate enough to gain the majority, we will be judged by this."

In San Francisco today, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi will host the first of more than 200 ``New Direction" events that Democrats are holding nationwide this month. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, will headline the first of about 50 similar Senate-run events tomorrow in New Jersey.

By contrast, Republicans have scheduled no August events focusing on national themes, said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Forti said that's an advantage for Republicans .

``People are going to make a choice between the two people on the ballot, not the Democrat vision and the Republican vision," he said. ``Whatever [Democrats] are saying here is totally irrelevant."

Republicans point out that Democrats are far from unanimous on the issues that could determine this year's elections. Party splits are on display most prominently in Connecticut, where Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is facing off against an aggressive primary challenger on Tuesday in a race where Lieberman's support for the president's Iraq policy is the biggest issue.

Still, the areas of Democratic consensus undercut a key argument Republicans are making in their bid to retain control of Congress: that the Democrats lack a positive agenda.

In crafting their message, Democrats are trying to answer concerns about their lack of ideas without offering proposals that are specific enough to shoot down, said Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst. They want to keep the focus on the Bush administration's unpopular policies.

``All they have to do is show they're honest and thoughtful and have some ideas," Rothenberg said. ``They're best to keep it broad-brush. They don't need something dramatic."

Rank-and-file Democrats recognize that this is not the year to push sweeping new government programs that would open themselves up to charges of seeking tax hikes, said Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat. The result is a platform that is realistic and widely backed by Democrats, he said. ``The most important thing we're going to do is not do what they're doing," Frank said.

Though Republicans have long mocked Democrats for lacking coherent party positions, Republicans in recent weeks have shown more signs of discord than Democrats.

Senate Republican leaders today are struggling to find the votes to pass a major item remaining on their agenda: a sweeping bill that links a higher minimum wage with a cut to the estate tax.

Bush used the first veto of his presidency last month to reject a stem-cell bill that passed with wide bipartisan support in Congress. An ethics and lobbying reform bill that Republican leaders hoped would serve as a response to recent congressional scandals is stalled amid Republican squabbling in the House and Senate.

And the current standoff over immigration pits conservative House Republicans against the president and many Senate GOP moderates.

Democrats say their party unity grew out of last year's successful effort to thwart Bush's effort to partially privatize Social Security, when the near-unanimous Democratic opposition under Reid and Pelosi meant that the plan never got off the ground. Democrats then sought to take their united opposition one step farther by offering policy proposals that promote new ideas -- not merely stating their commitment to stopping Republicans.

``This 100 days is about drilling in the different directions we would take this country," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the head of Democrats' House campaign efforts. ``I would rather be us than them."