Karl Rove, George Bush et al. are looking toward their second term with the purpose of building a lasting legacy and the Dems seem to be asleep at the wheel. There will be no legacy of an ambitious domestic agenda like the New Deal or Great Society. There will be no monumental foreign policy success like rapprochement with China and Russia, or brokering a Middle East peace treaty. This Administration has never been about substantive accomplishments that benefit the working man or woman, or about enhancing the United States' stature in the world. This Administration is about raw power, pure and unadulterated. Therefore, they are aiming for a legacy that eluded Nixon, Reagan, or Bush's dad. This Administration is determined to make the Republican Party the majority party for the next generation.
Choosing Alberto Gonzales and Condoleeza Rice as Attorney General and Secretary of State, respectively, is part of Rove's long term strategy of driving a wedge right into the base of the Democratic party by aggressively going after votes in the minority community. Attorney General and Secretary of State are the two most visible Cabinet positions, if not most coveted. Gonzales and Rice are young by political appointee standards and Rove is testing them for even more visible roles. Gonzales has long been tagged as the most likely to be first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court and Condoleeza would be priming for the Veep slot in 2008.
Now it's easy to say that Al and Condi are "window dressing" and that voters in the minority community would be able to see them as nothing more than doing business for "the man." True enough. However, it wouldn't take a huge shift in votes to efect the biggest realignment in political power since FDR. Republicans went all out to get what's estimated as somewhere between 33 and 44% of the Hispanic vote, depending on which figures you believe. The disturbing fact is that the numbers are moving in the wrong direction for the Democrats. Condoleeza never had the same respect and stature in the black community as Colin Powell but Powell's reputation was earned primarily from his military service and has diminished sharply since he joined the Administration. Yet, Condoleeza has always retained tenuous ties to the black community that have allowed her to avoid the pariah status of Clarence Thomas. It wouldn't require a shift of many votes to have the political effect of an 8.0 quake. Putting Condoleeza on a ticket could reasonably give the Republicans at least 20% of the African-American vote. If the GOP gains in Hispanic community continue, Democrats will have to run hard just to break even. Given that the majority of white people haven't voted for Democrats in 40 years, Rove is building on his electoral strategy and setting out to build a legacy that will last a generation.
Most everyone can recognize that the policies of the Republicans have had devastating on minority communities. However, the question increasingly being asked of the Democrats is "What have you done for me lately ?" And for many, the answer will be not enough. No national Democratic leader has emerged who has been able to bond with the African-American base of the party in the same way as Bill Clinton. African-Americans towed the party line this month because the alternative was so much worse, but there is certainly less enthusiasm for the party since Clinton retired to Harlem. The Congessional Black Caucus is conspicuous by its silence concerning the Ohio recount, and for good reason after the party abandoned black voters in Florida four years earlier. Reports are now that the CBC is encouraging former Denver mayor Wellington Webb to run for Party Chair because of dissatisfaction with the current group of contenders.
So while the Democrats are bickering over the DNC Chair and arguing about whether one candidate or the other best represent "the base," Republicans are making moves to steal a chunk of the base from right underneath the Democratic Party. And they just might do it and cement Bush's legacy along with it.