Author: BooMan

What Dean’s candidacy brought into the open, however, was another kind of growing and powerful tension in Democratic politics that had little to do with ideology. Activists often describe this divide as being between “insiders” and “outsiders,” but the best description I’ve heard came from Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic operative who runs the advocacy group N.D.N. (formerly New Democrat Network), which sprang from Clintonian centrism of the early 1990’s. As Rosenberg explained it, the party is currently riven between its “governing class” and its “activist class.” The former includes the establishment types who populate Washington – politicians, interest groups, consultants and policy makers. The second comprises “Net roots” Democrats on the local level; that is, grass-roots Democrats, many of whom were inspired by Dean and who connect to politics primarily online, through blogs or Web-based activist groups like MoveOn.org. The argument between the camps isn’t about policy so much as about tactics, and a lot of Democrats in Washington don’t even seem to know it’s happening.

The activist class believes, essentially, that Democrats in Washington have damaged the party by trying to negotiate and compromise with Republicans – in short, by trying to govern. The “Net roots” believe that an effective minority party should disengage from the governing process and eschew new proposals or big ideas. Instead, the party should dedicate itself to winning local elections and killing each new Republican proposal that comes down the track. To the activist class, trying to cut deals with Republicans is tantamount to appeasement. In fact, Rosenberg, an emerging champion of the activist class, told me, pointing to my notebook: “You have to use the word ‘appease.’ You have to use it. Because this is like Neville Chamberlain.”

This is an ominous development for Hillary Clinton, because the activists’ attack on the party hierarchy is a direct and long-simmering reaction to the Clintonism of the 90’s and the “third way” instinct of the D.L.C.

More Americans still disapprove of the president’s handling of problems caused by Rita than approve (49 percent vs. 42 percent.) And, across the board, most of his most visible policies only pull the support of a third of the country: on the economy, 35 percent approve; on Iraq, 33 percent; on energy policy, 28 percent.

More worrisome still, the base that provides the floor to the president’s support are critical of their own party these days. For instance, a 49-percent plurality of Republicans says their party is “too close to oil companies” and a 53-percent majority says it’s “too close to big business.”

“It’s been a difficult week, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said Representative David Dreier, the chairman of the Rules Committee, who has assumed new duties in the reshuffling.

Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, agreed. “You get your job done,” he said. “You can’t panic. Even though our poll numbers are going down, there’s no great love for the Democrats, no great support.”

“The Republican Party has taken some real body blows and is on the ropes right now,” said Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota. Because of recent events, he added, “Democrats basically have been keeping their mouth shut and watching as the Republicans kind of implode.”

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, argued that the Republican Party needed to acknowledge the governmental failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina and outline a broad agenda for change. As the party in charge, “We had better be the leader of changing it until it works or we will legitimately be fired as failures,” he said.

Other Republicans argued that the political times demanded a little soul-searching. Representative Chris Shays, a Republican moderate from Connecticut, said that the Republican Congress “needed to do a better job of oversight” of the executive branch. “We are not a parliament,” he said.

And John C. Danforth, a moderate and former Republican senator from Missouri, argued that the times “call for the Republican Party to recapture the middle of the political spectrum and to do a better job of emphasizing that.”

“Republicans are blinded by their culture of cronyism and corruption,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. “They’re crumbling, arrogantly protecting their power.”

Some backbenchers were gloomy and resentful, but unwilling to say so on the record, for fear that the vindictive DeLay might survive. “Leadership has become ossified and hopelessly out of touch,” lamented one such member. “They only care about one thing, hanging onto their own power. I’m not ready to take them on, at least not yet, not unless I have to!”

On Friday, September 9, days after Hurricane Katrina had ravaged the Gulf Coast, I felt frustrated and angry. In the communications department here at the DNC, I spend most of my day working and watching the news, and although I felt informed of what was going on around me, I also felt helpless and powerless to help those so far away.

At 10 a.m. the phone rang, and while I usually only get calls from the press, this one was different. A man identifying himself as a lifelong Republican was on the line. I began to prepare myself for whatever harsh words he was about to unleash, but to my surprise he said, “I need your help.” So I asked him “What do you need?”

In the wake of Katrina, Forrest King took in six evacuees because he said it was time for Americans to come together and help one another. He went on to say he had an elderly woman in his care, she had no medicine, and no one from the state or federal level would help him. He said that the Republican Party had abandoned him. He said the last thing he ever expected was to be calling up the DNC asking for help but he had no one else to call.