Word: midterms
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...Democrat attack the budget of a Republican president whose approval numbers on a bad day dip to 80%, one who wraps himself in the flag and surrounds himself at speaking gigs like the State of the Union address with 9/11 widows, firefighters and Special Forces commandos? The upcoming midterm elections add another complication: Democrats are within six seats of taking back the House of Representatives in November, but in the two dozen hotly contested congressional races that'll determine whether they succeed, the swing voters are suburban or rural conservatives who at the moment would carve George Bush's face...
...State of the Union address last week, Senate majority leader Tom Daschle flew to New York City for a private lunch with 50 or so Democratic donors, organized by Indiana Senator Evan Bayh. As Daschle made the case for why his party could pick up seats in the coming midterm elections, despite Bush's 80% job-approval ratings, an Alabama lawyer, Tazewell Shepard, cut through Daschle's gauzy talk. Name one issue, Shepard pressed, where the Democrats have the upper hand. Daschle was ready: The Enron debacle has people worried about their retirement security, he said; an issue that barely...
Republicans are hoping Bush's popularity can ward off the midterm-election jinx that a President's party usually faces. But they also know G.O.P. candidates tend to suffer whenever the debate turns to issues affecting people at or approaching retirement age. That group votes more dependably than any other, especially in off-year elections, and now includes the leading edge of the baby boom, 76 million strong. Democrats are well practiced at exploiting the group's fears. In 1982 the party stoked anxiety about Social Security reform and picked up 26 seats in the House; in 1986 the same...
...Then there's the political calculus of the midterm elections. Voters will probably be willing to cut Cheney and the administration some slack if there is a clear-cut reason for secrecy. Otherwise, Cheney and the GOP could take a pounding in the press. "Everyone is very sympathetic to issues of national security," says Melanson, "especially in times like these. But when it comes to issues of domestic policy that affect a controversial matter, I think the public right to know and even the doctrine of executive privilege suggests some information should be forthcoming...
...While Senators were making their acts of contrition, Republicans on the House side--with a nervous eye on the coming midterm elections--were trying to score points by publicly flaying some scapegoats. Arthur Andersen auditor David Duncan, who the company says ordered the shredding of Enron documents at the giant accounting firm's Houston office, took the Fifth in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (but not before briefing the panel's investigators behind closed doors). Then Duncan's superiors appeared before the committee and tried to pin all the blame on Duncan rather than take responsibility...