Currently, i'm reading a book titled Party Wars by Barbara Sinclair. In the book she talks about how the Democrats functioned as a minority party for so long (but no longer), yet kept party unity. This clearly shows the leadership that Nancy Pelosi is capable of displaying. I found this evident in the way the Democrats stood together on that horrible Medicare prescription drug bill in the past.
The story begins....
The vote on the Medicare/prescription drugs bill conference report posed a major test for House Democrats. If significant numbers of Democrats voted for the final bill, the party's argument that the bill represented a bad deal for seniors would ring hollow. Yet, especially considering the AARP's backing, voting against the bill struck some Democrats as electorally risky. The House party leaders believed a maximum effort to hold down defections was essential. At her leader's lunch the week of the vote, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told members "there will be no passes" on this issue; "this is a party vote." Other members backed her up; Marion Berry (Ark.), one of the more conservative Democrats, said: "We must not give them a single vote... If you go with this, you do not belong in this party." Emphasizing the legislation's flaws, Whip Steny Hoyer argued: "This is not about party, but about policy."
That's how it started but it gets more interesting as we read on.
Outraged by what they saw as the AARP selling out (blogger's comment: I'll never know why they did this only to be attacked by their stance against social security privatization later on. I guess they were used then turned on by the GOP) and unaware that they needed to counter the effects of the AARP endorsement, Democrats publicly resigned from the organization and blasted the position. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) sent a letter to AARP chief executive William Novelli expressing "our profound concern" and demanding an explanation for the decision. Eighty-five House Democrats sent Novelli a letter cancelling their memberships or, if younger, vowing not to join. The leadership worked to activate other senior groups and labor unions, urging them to express their opposition to the bill vocally.
As the vote approached, Pelosi and Hoyer met continuously with members in groups and individually, trying to persuade them to vote "no." Hoyer held more than a dozen whip meetings. Because the bill was more than a thousand pages long providing information and clearing up confusion were important functions of the meetings. The Democratic messge was: this is a bad bill that does little for seniors in terms of prescription drug coverage but does endager Medicare (blogger's comment: Indeed this was a way for the GOP to destroy a Great Society era program, it's the same thing they tried to do with the New Deal era program of Social Security). Despite the AARP, you can sell that message to your constituents.
I loved how the whip system worked really well here to keep the members informed about a bill that they were not given much time to even comprehend or mobilize against thanks to the House Republican Majority. Whether Jack Murtha or Steny Hoyer gets the House Democratic Majority Leader slot I will say this; Steny Hoyer has been there and went through the battles as part of the Democratic House leadership. I think knowing what he knows, he would be an excellent Majority Leader. He would hold the caucus together. Now I don't know much about Hoyer and his past, but I'm sure in the setting of the House he'd vote the right way and lead the caucus the right way on many votes. I also know that Al From of the DLC likes Hoyer, but since I don't agree with much of what the DLC is about, I most likely would like to see Hoyer as Majority Leader for different reasons than From does.
We continue on......
The effort continued on the floor; when the fifteen minutes normally allotted ot a recorded vote ran out, no Democrat had voted for the bill and it was losing--a temporary victory. David Wu (Ore.), the only member who had not cast a vote, was surrounded by Pelosi and many of the whips. Wu wanted to vote for the bill, but out of party loyalty, did not want to be the one who pushed the measure over the top. Only after the two Republicans switched their votes and changed the outcome did Wu cast his vote for the bill.
As a minority in a highly partisan House, the Democratic Party can seldom expect wo win floor votes. The Democratic leaders' lack many of the tangilbe legislative inducements their majority party counterparts control. For example, at the last minute, Republicans inserted in the Medicare bill a provision benefiting a specific hospital in Tennesse; the aim was to pick up the vote of Memphis Democrat Harold E. Ford Jr; in the end it did not succeed. The minority leaders, of course, lakc the procedural powers of the majority: when the majority decides to schedule a bill quickly, so that opposition does not have time to mobilzie, or decides to pull a bill because more time is needed to find the necessary votes, or when the majority holds open a vote long beyond the usual fifteen minutes, the minority has no procedural counter.
Of course this horrible piece of legislation became a reality harming Medicare just as the GOP wanted; but also harming seniors everywhere.
But while the minority party can seldom win floor victories it can sometimes, by sticking together, make the majority party pay a stiff price for victory. House Republicans recieved considerable bad press for their nearly three-hour-long vote; their leaders were depicted as heavy-handed and less than fair. The coverage resulted in substantial publicity for the Democrats' claims against the bill and probably raised more doubts among voters. For the House minority party, that constitutes success. In addition, the Repiublican leaders' floor tactics infuriated Democrats, who believed they had been "robbed," and almost certainly made harder the attracting of Democratic votes for the Republican position in the future.
Though they "lost" on the Medicare prescription drug bill in the end. The Democrats by the leadership of Pelosi and Hoyer stuck together. Yet, one has to ask; why must it be this way? Politics is said to be the art of compromise, the give and take if you will. By the Republicans in the House being so partisan as to lock the Democrats out, does this benefit the American people? No. It will be interesting to see how the House Republicans now in the minority will act. Will they seek to hamper the Democrats efforts by pulling their caucus together and voting as a bloc against them? Will the GOP try to score points with the press?
I think the Democratic House will be a good House because I don't believe we will see the Democrats using horrible and undemocratic floor tactics like holding votes open for three hours! Unlike the undemocratic way the House GOP has acted since it became the majority; I think you will see a Democratic House majority that will not seek to get even (well just a little LOL) by behaving the way the GOP did. You won't see Democrats cutting off the microphones and lights during a meeting like Republican congressman Sensenbrenner did to the Democrats! I believe you will see a Democratic House that will try to work with the Republicans a lot more. Clearly the majority party in the 110th congress in both houses has an agenda that is different than the majority party of the 109th. But the people voted for a new majority for a reason! So while the majority will seek to, and should enact much of their agenda, there is room to show that compromise is possible with the minority party. The minority party in turn should not seek to carry their bad habits of their majority days into the 110th congress and work with the Democrats when possible. Yet, i'm weary of the GOP for all the wrong they have done and I don't expect anything positive.
In the end i'm really excited about this new Democratic majority congress. I love politics, government and civic issues with all my heart. I would love one day to work in Washington DC or on The Hill. One day I dream of being a member of the House of Representatives myself. With role models like Speaker Nancy Pelosi many of us can't help but believe.