Latest Bogus Media Line: Dems Offer Voters Nothing Beyond "Only" Investigating GOP
March 26, 2007 -- 3:19 PM EST // //
It's getting harder and harder to open your newspaper or turn on your TV without hearing a variation of the claim that the Democratic Congressional majority is offering voters nothing beyond "only" investigating the GOP and the White House. Here's historian James Thurber, speaking to The New York Times's Adam Nagourney:
âIf Democrats want to do well in 2008 on the House side and the Senate side, they have to show they can govern,â said James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. âThey have to show they can do more than investigate and push back on the president.â
Similarly, here's Washington Post columnist David Broder's latest column about the big new Pew poll:
But a word of caution is in order. There is little here that suggests voters' opinion of Democrats is much higher than it was when they lost Congress in 1994. It seems doubtful that Democrats can help themselves a great deal just by tearing down an already discredited Republican administration with more investigations such as the current attack on the Justice Department and White House over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.At some point, Democrats have to give people something to vote for. People already know what they're against -- the Republicans.
Here are the problems with this argument. First and most obviously, both of these commentators surely know that Dems are in fact offering much more than mere investigations -- but they reflexively asserted otherwise, anyway. In the days before Thurber and Broder issued these pronouncements, House Democrats passed binding legislation mandating withdrawal from Iraq by Fall 2008 at the latest; meanwhile, the Dem Presidential candidates all backed the idea of comprehensive reform to provide universal health care. These are only the most visible and recent examples.
You can disagree with these. You can say that the Iraq withdrawal bill won't ultimately have real-world impact. You can say that the Dems haven't offered enough health care policy details. But one thing you can't do -- unless you're willingly succumbing to the worst and most banal type of hackery -- is pretend that these things didn't happen or don't matter. They represent real policy goals that Dems are laying out -- and as such, they are things that people can be for, despite stuffy pronouncements that no such things exist. As it happens, the American public is for them. Nearly six in 10 back the Congressionally-imposed Iraq withdrawal deadline, and solid majorities back not just government-guaranteed health care, but higher taxes to pay for it.
The second problem with this emerging line is the assumption underlying it: That Dem-led Congressional probes into GOP and White House malfeasance somehow don't constitute governing. But they do: They constitute a decision by the leaders of one branch of government to use the resources and powers granted them by voters to exercise oversight over another elective branch. This is a governing choice -- one that the GOP-led Congress declined to make, and that Dems are making now. As such, it, too, is something that voters can be for, despite dismissive sneering to the contrary. No question: Congressional Dems have tons more to do if they are to prove they can govern, win lasting public trust, and build a durable majority. But that doesn't mean it's okay for commentators to reflexively repeat the thoroughly bogus claim that Dems are offering nothing beyond "only" striving to impose oversight and accountability. Choose not to be a hack, please.
Update: Glenn Greenwald highlights a poll that shows that the American people see investigations into GOP malfeasance as something to be "for" by an overwhelming margin. It finds that 72% -- nearly three out of four -- think Congress should investigate the Attorney Purge, while only 21% think it shouldn't. Yet David Broder sneeringly describes this as nothing but a "tearing down" of the GOP.
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