Dems Take Aggressive Posture, Exploit GOP Weakness

The New York Times

Thursday 03 November 2005

Washington - The Democratic decision to bushwhack Senate Republicans this week with a surprise procedural maneuver reflected a larger political strategy to shift the terrain to issues that Democrats believe will play to their common advantage in the 2006 elections.

After infuriating majority Republicans on Tuesday by forcing the Senate into a closed session over the Bush administration's handling of intelligence before the Iraq war, leading Senate Democrats said Wednesday that they would not shy from using any means available to have their say, though they would not tip their hand on specific plans.

"There is still a lot of fight in this Democratic Party, and on the right issues we are going to get up and fight," said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, as the Senate clash continued to reverberate on Capitol Hill.

Arguing that Republicans are vulnerable in light of misconduct accusations reaching the highest levels of the White House and Congress, a rising death toll in Iraq and record fuel prices and oil company profits, Democrats are taking a more aggressive adversarial posture.

They are pounding the administration in the C.I.A. leak case while simultaneously fighting a Republican budget-and-tax-cutting plan and exploring the idea of a filibuster against President Bush's new Supreme Court pick.

At the same time, they are promoting a party message under the theme "Together, America Can Do Better," a slogan seen at Democratic events. In the coming months, they also intend to unveil a platform that Democrats see as their version of the Contract With America that began the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. It will cover such issues as employment, higher education, energy and technology.

"We are going to assert ourselves," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Democratic campaign effort and one of those involved in mapping out the surprise floor attack on Republicans. "What has given us new vigor in this is we think the American people are on our side."

He and other Democrats said the public response to their Senate fight was positive. And a CBS News poll issued Wednesday showed Mr. Bush's approval rating at 35 percent, the lowest point of his presidency in that survey. It also found that 51 percent of those polled considered the C.I.A. leak case a matter of great importance to the nation...............