Burnt Orange Report

Missing Charlie Stenholm Yet?

By Byron LaMasters

Hit and Run notes some comments by Mark Shields on PBS's NewsHour:

MARK SHIELDS: Well, to say the president will be without one of the great Democrats that he could have relied upon for counsel and real help in this election because of the incredibly short sightedness of the White House and Tom Delay -- Charlie Stenholm, Democrat from West Texas, blue dog Democrat --

JIM LEHRER: Explain what a blue dog Democrat is.

MARK SHIELDS: A blue dog Democrat are Democrats -- the moderate to conservative Democrats in the South mostly, border states, who believe in things like fiscal sanity, who oppose tax cuts but oppose big liberal spending, but continue to be Democrats. And Charlie Stenholm of West Texas was a ranking Democrat, respected on both sides of the aisle, Jim. And he was in favor of privatizing part of Social Security, one of the principal advocates. If Charlie Stenholm was in the House of Representatives today, he would get a minimum of ten or a dozen Democrats to join.

But there is no Charlie Stenholm left in the US Congress, and no Democrat with the influence to move others in the caucus towards President Bush's position on Social Security, or most any other issue for that matter, especially while Bush's approval is sitting in the mid-40s. The GOP may have gained five seats in Texas, but they may have just as easily lost ten votes on several issues.

The Bush administration had the chance to make a gracious gesture towards Democrats by appointing Stenholm as Agriculture Secretary. Instead the White House's only interest in bipartisanship in the cabinet was if it could help them in picking up a Democratic Senate seat (hence the courting of Ben Nelson D-NE and Joe Lieberman D-CT).

The American people want Democrats to be a true opposition party, and hopefully the Democrats will do their best to make Bush's second term a miserable one.