Will The Democrats Blow Their Best Chance To Take Control Of Congress In Decades?

The media are full of comparisons between 2006 and the 1994 assault by the Republicans on the House and Senate via their "Contract With America". In that year the GOP gained 52 seats in the House and 8 in the Senate, giving them control of both houses.

In another excellent piece in the Times' Magazine, James Traub looks at the similarities and the differences. The main difference is, I think the inability of the Democrats so far to clearly state those beliefs and policies they would commit to bring to fruition. They seem caught between their gut feelings, supported passionately by their core constituencies, and their sense of political realism, which tells them that a promise to pull out of Iraq, assure the right of abortion on demand, raise taxes (only on the rich of course) and protect the civil rights of terrorists will assure they will lose.

All they have going for them is that they are the anti-Bush party. It seems unlikely that massive change can come from that position, unless Bush is stupid enough to continue trying to sell a failing policy in Iraq with the same team and fails to create any serious motion towards energy independence or other important domestic issues.