Dem in trouble all over the USA

Are the Democrats in Trouble? You Betcha!
By Steffen Schmidt

I have sufficiently exposed the flaws in the Republican Party this year, weaknesses that are troubling even to GOP leaders and operatives.

Now, in fairness, I must turn my guns on the Democrats.

Sure they control the House, Senate, and the White House. Of course their approval ratings are at least 10 percentage points ahead of the GOP. Democrats trust and like their party by a huge gap. BUT, there is the disaster called California, the chaos of New York, and the slime of the bay State (Massachusetts).

In California the Democrats have managed to spend the state into bankruptcy and don’t have the spine to cut spending and raise fees and taxes. While Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor and is nominally a Republican it is the Big spending Democrats who have blocked any efforts to straighten out this magnificent state.

In New York the Democrats are weak and led by governor Patterson with approval ratings of 21%, which is les than his disgraced predecessor Elliot Spitzer (he resigned when his dalliances with a young prostitute in Washington, DC was revealed) who has a whopping 26% approval.
Patterson is in such miserable shape that there is talk of a primary challenge for the 2010 election, which he would probably lose. The democrats are the majority party in New York but they seem rudderless against the pitifully small Republican contingent, which, while on life support, continues to lunge up from the deathbed, its arms extended out Frankenstein-like.

The latest GOP “miracle” was the defection of two “rogue” Democrats Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate. These two Hispanic Senators decided to switch parties and vote with the GOP, thus giving the republicans a 52 vote majority in the Senate. Because Gov Patterson was the Lt. governor when Spitzer quit there is no one in that position and Sen. Espada, as Senate President, would become the Gov. of New York State should Patterson quit.

By the way Mr. Espada is under investigation for keeping bad campaign finance records for which he has been fined before, doubts about where his official residency is (he represents the Bronx but they say he really lives in Mamaroneck, which is not his district), dubious tax-payer financed travel, and illegal earmarks for a nonprofit in the Bronx which he founded and is its CEO.

This “traitorous” behavior has given New York Democrats a bad case of vertigo. Without a strong leader and the machine politics muscle that could have deterred the two Hispanic defectors, the party seems adrift.

Senator Monserrate decided over the weekend following his leap to the GOP to switch back again to the Democrats thus creating a tie in the New York Senate. Did I mention that their defection (we used to use that for Cubans who would seek asylum) was arranged” by a “rogue billionaire” (I don’t know how that differs from a non-rogue billionaire) Tom Golisano, the retired Paychex billionaire, three-time gubernatorial candidate and founder of the NY state Independence Party. (By the way he is moving to Florida where there is no income tax and saving $14,000 a day by leaving New York.)

Wow! Real gridlock! Real “dissidence”! Evil billionaires! How cool is that? Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said “… it makes New York look like a banana republic.”

So while California is a political and economic disaster, New York Democrats have now become a joke.

Then there is Massachusetts. We all know that there are no Republicans in Mass. So the Democrats have been free to rampage through the system with no scrutiny and they decided to commit almost every abuse of power imaginable. Their offenses range from repeatedly assaulting women in public to taking bribes and stuffing them in their bra, extorting money for contracts, putting relatives on unspeakable payrolls, greatly increasing public pensions for themselves at a time of serious economic pain, and of course sucking the Federal Govt. and US taxpayers dry with the “Big Dig” waterfront project which makes defense and medical contract overruns looks like a day care center scandal.

Lets put it in perspective. We now have the third Speaker of the House in the Bay State (or “on Beacon Hill” as they say because that’s where the State House is located) in a row to face criminal charges! No wonder citizens in Massachusetts are literally giving the finger to legislators as they drive home.

In Iowa, Gov. Chet Culver (D) looks vulnerable with low approval ratings and a likely primary fight as well as an aggressive field of Republicans on the hunt. Steve King vs Bob Vander Plaats should be fun. The State House also looks wobbly for the Democrats assuming Iowa Republicans can field what I like to call a “99 County Campaign -99CC” (i.e. find someone with a pulse to run against the Dems in every single race). In 2010 this may be possible because they have finally discovered the Internet and social networking technology and could “Twitter” their way into a majority.

The point is that while the Republicans look weak and in disarray nationally (which they are) the Democrats actually have a soft underbelly in many states. The 2010 elections may be more interesting that the mainstream pundits and media have estimated. So stay tuned. It could be a great year for America’s favorite contact sport.

Steffen Schmidt is University Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University and the lead author of the book American Government and Politics Today 2009-2010, (17th edition), Cengage Publishing.