CAN DEMOCRATS TAKE BACK THE CONGRESS FROM THE FORCES OF DARKNESS IN '06?

Chances are you never heard of Stu Rothenberg or of THE ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT but to those inside the Beltway-- or aspiring to that fate-- it's considered gospel. A new edition just came out and apparently the non-partisan Rothenberg is NOT seeing any evidence of a seismic shift in this country's political alignment in time for the 2006 midterm elections. He acknowledges that "Democrats have recruited more top tier challengers than have the Republicans" but he warns that Democrats "don't now have enough opportunities to net 15 seats and control of the House of Representatives. Still, atmospherics could give Democrats a significant boost next year, handing the party a few seats that they would not win in a neutral political environment. For that reason, we would expect modest but not insignificant Democratic gains in the order of 4-6 seats, or possibly even a bit higher. Democrats would need a major wave to exceed those levels." (According to Rothenberg, the Republicans-- even with their HUGE corporately-financed campaign coffers-- see '06 as "a test of whether they can hold what they've already won..." (with) "few Democratic targets next year."

Progressives reveling in Bush's abysmal-- and still sinking-- poll ratings or who see that Mr and Mrs. John Q Voter are finally awakening to the adverse impact of the basic GOP political philosophy that has caused our country such grievous harm under Bush II, Clinton, Bush I and Reagan, are hoping for the 50-60 seat net gain for the Democrats in the House (and 6 or 7 in the Senate) to potentially impeach Bush and spare the country another 2 years of his disastrously debilitating and corrupt regime.

Democratic Beltway "leaders," Republican-lite DLC parasites, and self-serving elected officials like Biden, Lieberman and Clinton may think WAITING and HOPING for the favorable "atmospherics" Rothenberg referred to, the kind that could focus national revulsion with Bush's governance onto the midterms and send the message to "kick out the bums" (the way Gingrich did with his Contract With America), will just drop in their laps. It won't. It needs effort, the kind of grass roots work being done by DNC Chair Howard Dean along with a new breed of state party leaders like the ones in North Carolina and Arkansas. And it needs the work of non-Beltway citizens concerned not with political careers but with the good of our nation. Obviously what goes on in Washington is far too important to leave in the hands of the self-servers and careerists (of either party).