Ought Six
Membership Revoked
Dejected Democrats vow to regroup
By JOAN LOWY
Scripps Howard News Service
03-NOV-04
WASHINGTON -- After being shut out of the White House and losing ground in the Senate and the House, Democrats Wednesday began the long and arduous process of rebuilding their party.
Biting back bitter disappointment over Sen. John Kerry's loss in the presidential campaign, Democratic leaders vowed to continue to push for job creation and affordable health care and to champion the rights of workers, the poor and minorities.
"Union members put their hearts into this election," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "We're going to take that energy, that momentum, that field operation and start right now building a movement that will keep turning this country around. ... We can't let the policies of the last four years stand, and we won't."
In Boston, Kerry running mate John Edwards told dejected supporters: "You can be disappointed, but you cannot walk away. ... This campaign may end today, but the battle for you and the hard-working Americans who built this country rages on."
The party has neither an obvious strategy for reinventing itself nor a recognized leader at the helm. Not only were Democrats rocked by a nearly complete Republican sweep of competitive contests in the election, but the defeat of Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota _ the party's top congressional leader _ was particularly difficult to swallow.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate, was handily re-elected, but he is not considered by Democrats to be as effective as Daschle and may face a challenger for the top post.
Political analysts were quick to suggest that Democrats must move more toward the political middle if they are to broaden their appeal to an electorate that has become increasingly more conservative.
"There is nothing wrong with the Democratic Party that a successful presidential campaign won't cure and that maybe even a successful midterm election in 2006 won't cure," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
However, the party can no longer afford to nominate "any more liberal Democrats from the Northeast," Sabato said. "In the next presidential election, it's obvious that what the Democrats need to do is nominate a candidate from the nation's heartland or South or Midwest, someone who can appeal to suburbanites who are fiscal conservatives, but moderate to liberal on social issues."
One potential candidate who fits that bill is Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Sabato said. A moderate former governor, Bayh was easily re-elected on Tuesday to a second Senate term from a conservative Midwestern state that President Bush carried by a double-digit margin.
On the other hand, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York _ probably the nation's best known Democrat besides Kerry and Edwards among the current crop of officeholders _ would probably spell another loss for the party, Sabato said.
Brookings Institution presidential scholar Stephen Hess disagreed. "Hillary Clinton is certainly going to fascinate the media and it will be a remarkable story _ a former first lady seeking to be the first woman nominee of a major party in the United States," Hess said.
The rosy afterglow of election results that Republicans are currently basking in could quickly evaporate if there's a national crisis or if Bush makes a misstep, Hess said.
"It's the nature of things to go wrong and presidents are often blamed for things that go wrong on their watch," said Hess, a former Nixon speechwriter. "Midterm elections always have a way of producing possibilities and possible candidates. We'll see what happens there as well."
Liberals in the party cautioned against overreacting to election losses by moving away from the party's base.
"We've got a lot of evaluating to do," said Rep. Elijah Cumming, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "But one thing that I don't want us to do is take the focus off of those things that affect our people on a day to day basis ... things that go to the center of our constituents lives."
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On the Net: www.aflcio.org
www.house.gov/cummings/cbc/cbchome.htm
By JOAN LOWY
Scripps Howard News Service
03-NOV-04
WASHINGTON -- After being shut out of the White House and losing ground in the Senate and the House, Democrats Wednesday began the long and arduous process of rebuilding their party.
Biting back bitter disappointment over Sen. John Kerry's loss in the presidential campaign, Democratic leaders vowed to continue to push for job creation and affordable health care and to champion the rights of workers, the poor and minorities.
"Union members put their hearts into this election," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "We're going to take that energy, that momentum, that field operation and start right now building a movement that will keep turning this country around. ... We can't let the policies of the last four years stand, and we won't."
In Boston, Kerry running mate John Edwards told dejected supporters: "You can be disappointed, but you cannot walk away. ... This campaign may end today, but the battle for you and the hard-working Americans who built this country rages on."
The party has neither an obvious strategy for reinventing itself nor a recognized leader at the helm. Not only were Democrats rocked by a nearly complete Republican sweep of competitive contests in the election, but the defeat of Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota _ the party's top congressional leader _ was particularly difficult to swallow.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate, was handily re-elected, but he is not considered by Democrats to be as effective as Daschle and may face a challenger for the top post.
Political analysts were quick to suggest that Democrats must move more toward the political middle if they are to broaden their appeal to an electorate that has become increasingly more conservative.
"There is nothing wrong with the Democratic Party that a successful presidential campaign won't cure and that maybe even a successful midterm election in 2006 won't cure," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
However, the party can no longer afford to nominate "any more liberal Democrats from the Northeast," Sabato said. "In the next presidential election, it's obvious that what the Democrats need to do is nominate a candidate from the nation's heartland or South or Midwest, someone who can appeal to suburbanites who are fiscal conservatives, but moderate to liberal on social issues."
One potential candidate who fits that bill is Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Sabato said. A moderate former governor, Bayh was easily re-elected on Tuesday to a second Senate term from a conservative Midwestern state that President Bush carried by a double-digit margin.
On the other hand, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York _ probably the nation's best known Democrat besides Kerry and Edwards among the current crop of officeholders _ would probably spell another loss for the party, Sabato said.
Brookings Institution presidential scholar Stephen Hess disagreed. "Hillary Clinton is certainly going to fascinate the media and it will be a remarkable story _ a former first lady seeking to be the first woman nominee of a major party in the United States," Hess said.
The rosy afterglow of election results that Republicans are currently basking in could quickly evaporate if there's a national crisis or if Bush makes a misstep, Hess said.
"It's the nature of things to go wrong and presidents are often blamed for things that go wrong on their watch," said Hess, a former Nixon speechwriter. "Midterm elections always have a way of producing possibilities and possible candidates. We'll see what happens there as well."
Liberals in the party cautioned against overreacting to election losses by moving away from the party's base.
"We've got a lot of evaluating to do," said Rep. Elijah Cumming, D-Md., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "But one thing that I don't want us to do is take the focus off of those things that affect our people on a day to day basis ... things that go to the center of our constituents lives."
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On the Net: www.aflcio.org
www.house.gov/cummings/cbc/cbchome.htm