Democrats Revive "Party of No" Attack
Democrats are retooling and reprising their “Party of No” attack on Republicans in Congress after they unanimously rejected financial reform and health care bills in votes this month.
But already, analysts are questioning whether charges of GOP obstructionism will be enough to keep voters from taking out their angst over the economy on Democrats next fall.
Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began making robocalls against Republicans in four districts in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania for opposing a Democratic plan to tighten regulation of banks and financial services firms widely blamed for last year’s economic meltdown.
“Remember? We said it can’t happen again. But did you know Congressman [Mario] Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) voted to let Wall Street continue the same risky practices that crippled retirement accounts and cost taxpayers $700 billion, including unchecked bonuses and salaries for executives?” says the call, which was first reported by the Miami Herald. “Maybe the $81,204 he got from financial special interests mattered more than taxpayers.”
The recorded messages come on the heels of 60-second radio ads the DCCC rolled out in five districts in California, Nebraska and Pennsylvania highlighting the same Dec. 11 vote in which no Republican backed the regulation package.
The salvos come as other Democrats say they plan to paint Republicans as obstructionist for their down-the-line opposition to Senate health care legislation Thursday.
“History will judge harshly those who have chosen the simple path of obstruction over the hard work of making change. It always does,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), an architect on the Senate financial reform bill.
“I think it’s a good argument for the Democrats. I just don’t think it will work,” said Stu Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. “It is a good message if the fundamentals change. …The problem is, if the economy is not in good shape and people still don’t feel [a recovery], it’s going to be about Obama and about the Democrats. With Democrats controlling everything, and how active the administration has been on all these fronts, I just don’t think the Democrats are going to make it about the Republicans.”
Republican lawmakers insist they’re not worried about being slapped with a do-nothing label.
“Nobody's been an obstructionist. All we wanted to do was participate in the process,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on CNN during a back-and-forth over the health care bill. “I think [Democrats] deserve some credit for getting it done, as bad as it is. But it's going to wreck our country, I have to tell you. And people out there know that.”
A spokesman for the DCCC, Ryan Rudominer, said his committee’s message is not so much about Republican inertia as about the GOP siding with the very banks and financial institutions that many Americans blame for tanking the economy last fall.
“We’re hitting Republicans who are standing with Wall Street’s special interests instead of folks on Main Street,” Rudominer said. “While Democrats are standing up for the middle class, Republicans are standing up for the special interests…. Republicans have zero credibility when it comes to the economy considering it’s the very same Bush policies that created the economic mess in the first place that their party is trying to return to.”
There is little doubt the Democratic ads are intended to play on the mood of an angry electorate.
“Doesn’t that just make you mad?” the Democratic radio spots ask, after recounting the GOPer’s vote against regulatory reform.
“People are angry and what Democrats are trying to do is channel that anger,” said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen. “You’ve got to displace the anger onto the Republicans. If they can do that, Democrats have some hope but right now things are looking increasingly bleak every day.”
Schoen was blunt about the challenge Democrats are facing next fall. “The Democrats are trying to stem the bleeding,” the former pollster for President Bill Clinton said. “Obama’s in a free fall and, unless they stem the bleeding, they’re going to face unprecedented losses.”
One Democratic official said the party thinks its increasingly populist message will even resonate with some of the Tea Party activists steamed over government bailouts.
“Republicans are going to be hit from the right and the left on this. The Tea Party folks don’t like Obama or the Republican establishment. They don’t like Wall Street. And they don’t like Republicans standing with Wall Street,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
One prominent political analyst said the Democrats might get some traction with their latest message.
“With an angry electorate out there, populism could make a comeback in 2010. This kind of attack is made-to-order Democratic populism, targeting the big boys on Wall Street,” said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “This is a two-fer for Democrats. Swing voters are overwhelmingly anti-Wall Street, but the foremost task of the Democratic Party in 2010 is to re-motivate its 2008 Obama voters—the ones who didn’t show up in November 2009 in New Jersey and Virginia. Every issue that can stoke the emotions of core Democrats can help the party to reduce the enthusiasm gap that has opened up with the Republicans.”
However, GOP pollster Ed Goeas said he doesn’t think the Democrats’ strategy will peel off many potential Republican voters. Rather, Goeas said, it’s intended to buck up Democratic voters disenchanted with bickering over health care and other issues. “Most of that they’re trying to do is not dig the hole deeper for us, but raise the intensity of their base, which is very disenchanted at this point,” the GOP pollster said. He called anti-Bush appeals “fools’ gold,” which may excite some hardcore Democrats but will have increasingly little impact as time passes.
Rothenberg said the Democratic ads' references to “October 2008” and “the last months of the Bush presidency” already seem a bit old and may be all but irrelevant by next fall. “Ten percent unemployment will be of greater significance and greater salience. That’s the problem for Democrats,” the analyst said.
GOP strategist Scott Reed said, “I’m pretty upbeat about where things are at the end of the year for Republicans. I think it’s wishful thinking that the party-of-no is going to stick right now.”
“Clearly, Republicans want to be on the side of Main Street, not Wall Street,” Reed said, but he said voters are more likely to be focused on the economy generally and on widespread fears about government overspending. “I think the jury is still out on whether Democrats have overshot the runway….Next year is going to be a very long year.”
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Sources: Politico, DNC, Youtube, Zimbio, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Google Maps
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