Tom Curry seems to be the Rovian water-boy in Newsweek. Last week, his column suggested that the Dems in power would result in endless hearings and investigations (Good!!). This week Mr. Curry (who bears an insanely spot-on resemblance to Ned Flanders, BTW) carries the new meme...If the Dems are in power, expect lots and lots of internal wrangling and bickering.
MSNBC links to the report with "If Dems get majority leadership, expect internal strife." How're them apples.
Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12823166/
More after the flip:
The article itself calls into question Pelosi's leadership and extensively quotes David Sirota. Some of it is probably spot-on...it's the innuendos around the edges that get me.
If Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gets at least 218 seats to win a majority, a small but decisive number of her members would be centrist and conservative Democrats such as Rep. Melissa Bean of Illinois, Rep. John Salazar of Colorado, and Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia.
Last week Bean, Salazar, and Marshall -- all locked in tough races -- reminded Pelosi with their votes for the Republican-sponsored tax cut that they side with President Bush and the Republicans on some big issues.
Only 15 Democrats voted for the $70 billion bill, which continues the current tax rates on capital gains and dividends, while 182 Democrats voted against the measure.
<snip>
Bean and about a dozen other centrist-conservative Democrats could hold the balance of power in a Pelosi-led House.
In fact, even in the GOP-controlled House, on some votes these Democrats already hold the balance of power.
<snip>
Liberal veterans would be chairmen
If Democrats win the majority, the chairmen of powerful House committees will be veteran liberals such as Rep. Henry Waxman of California, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, and Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, who hold "safe" seats far different in character from Bean's Republican-leaning district in Illinois or Salazar's GOP turf in rural Colorado.
"It's very possible Democrats could get the majority and be even more fractured" than they are now, said Democratic strategist David Sirota.
"Many of the potential chairmen -- Waxman, Obey, Conyers -- have been waiting around a long time," he said.
The article itself states the reality that there is a continuum of thought in the Democratic Party. The tone of the article and the headline is that this "continuum" is a bad thing for the US. As if the lock-step, rubber-stamp Congress under Bu$h and Delay have been good for America (or even the Repubs). In addition, Curry seems to neglect the possibility that achieving party discipline as a minority party, particularly in an election year, is fraught with difficulties.
In sum, although there are aspects to the story which are pretty harmless and probably accurate, the "tone" of the article suggests that the Repubs will spew the "fractious and unproductive Dem" theme in various ways over the next five months.