The game plan takes shape
Ron Suskind recommends a playbook for the Democratic Congress, and it’s pretty darn good.
Thinking strategically, going for Medicare and prescription drug reform appeals to a critical voting bloc. Going after the energy industry goes after the group everyone loves to hate.
I’d add that much of the rehash of already known stuff about the invasion of Iraq does not, by itself, serve a politically strategic purpose. The focus there is better spent seeking intelligence reform to protect the nation going forward, and definitely requires gaining the testimony of guys like Hank the Shank, who’s still engineering policy prescriptions despite an amazing record of failure to achieve positive results.
Keeping the country safer should be the ongoing, highest profile stuff. Getting the answers to the missteps by policymakers is important, but ought to proceed at a slower pace, to maintain that expose well into 2008.
The constituency that should not be ignored are the voters who showed up in the greatest numbers for the Dems in 2006: unmarried women. Economic issues and a conflict with Iran are likely to be key in 2008. And these will appeal across all demographics.
And impeachment? Well, there’s no hurry to get stuck with Cheney, is there? Let the scandals there come out at a measured pace. There’s a country to protect and working Americans to champion. Suskind’s blueprint is one we can build on.
