"Happy Hours"

NYT: Op-Ed Contributor
Happy Hours
By THOMAS B. EDSALL
Published: January 18, 2007

SOMETHING odd happened on Capitol Hill this week. Something that seemed to start out as a publicity stunt — the House Democratic leadership’s 100-hour agenda — actually turned into a ...qualified success....

***

First, Democrats have shown basic competence and authority after four decades of defeat and division, whether in the majority or minority.

Second, the House has now approved legislation directly addressing public concerns: raising the minimum wage, ethics reform, interest rate reductions on subsidized college loans and expanded federal support for stem cell research. It has put in place rule changes to promote fiscal responsibility and adopted recommendations from the 9/11 commission. Today, the House is expected to repeal tax breaks for oil companies. Poll-tested and guaranteed to be political winners, these achievements constitute a modest start toward a saleable centrist agenda for a party too often in the past labeled as extreme.

More important in terms of substantive future legislation, the ability of the Democrats to win over significant numbers of Republicans on most votes signals the slim but enticing possibility of Democratic mastery over a demoralized Republican Party — one that has thrived on polarized partisan warfare in recent years.

If the new bipartisanship takes root, the prospects for health care legislation and immigration reform sharply improve. These proposals cannot survive without backing from both Democrats and Republicans....Similarly, Republican willingness to cross the aisle strengthens the hand of those who want to build Congressional opposition to the Iraq war. Every Republican who joins the opposition makes it easier for Democrats in red states and districts to become public critics of the war, and for more Republicans to join with them. (Witness the suddenly outspoken Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon.) Without some measure of Republican support, Democrats who challenge the war — particularly those who vote to deny appropriations — run the risk of being portrayed as unpatriotic and unwilling to support American troops in the midst of battle....

(Thomas B. Edsall, a professor of journalism at Columbia, is the author, most recently, of “Building Red America.”)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/opinion/18edsall.html

since the Civil war.

All the religious crazies and bigots who used to be the Dixie Democrats, or boll weevil Democrats, have switched parties.

The minority rich man's party has become correspondingly crazy, while the
Democratic party, rid of its worst elements, has become sane, stable, and unified enough to get things done.

This will be interesting to watch.