Abstract

Democrats: MIA

The article criticizes the lack of a Democratic Party leadership in the United States Congress. After giving President George W. Bush far too easy a ride in his first term, the Democratic leadership in Congress promised that the second term was going to be different. But three months of watching the Democrats' stumbling, often incoherent responses to Administration appointments and initiatives shows clearly that the party is making the same mistakes. With the Senate vote on a budget amendment that would have protected the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, seven Republican senators voted to protect the refuge from oil drilling. Had the Democratic caucus simply held firm in support of the amendment, it would have won. In the Senate vote on tort "reform," another issue on which Democrats are supposed to be the defenders of the common good against the Republicans, Bush and his allies wanted to limit the ability of citizens to file class-action lawsuits against corporations that injure or defraud them. A united Democratic opposition in the Senate could have won Republican allies for a fight to preserve the sovereignty of state courts. Even more disappointing was the vote on legislation designed to make it harder for middle-class and poor Americans to declare personal bankruptcy.