Fighting each other, or the war

OK. It’s official. the Democratic squabbling over Iraq begins, as the party’s more cautious wing and its antiwar wing are fighting over whether Iraq-War critic John Murtha will be the party’s majority leader in the newly Democratic House of Representatives.

The cautious wing of the party — critical of the president and his approach on the battlefield, but unwilling to call for a full pullout — is hopings its candidate, Steny Hoyer, will move from deputy minority leader to majority leader, the number two slot in the House.

But the cautious ones need to revisit last week’s electoral sweep, one that was essentially a referendum on the war. Democrats won because the public wants it to end. John Murtha is the most vocal critic of the war and it is imperative that this Marine Corps veteran be the party’s antiwar face in the new Congress.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Democrats eat their own

This comes courtesy of Brilliant at Breakfast (I generally avoid The New Republic) and makes you wonder just how long it will take before the Democrats implode.

James Carville, that rowdy loudmouth that Jon Stewart destroyed a while back on CNN, is shooting off his mouth again. Here is Ryan Lizza’s report from The New Republic:

A PUTSCH AT THE DNC?:

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.

The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.

Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, “Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager.”

If I’m not mistaken, the Democrats managed to take back both houses of Congress, including seats in the South and others considered by party hacks to be untouchable — some of those 50 states the party’s supposedly mainstream leaders wanted to abandon.

And so it goes in the Democratic Party, a party that seems incapable of getting out of its own way. Doesn’t seem to bode as well for 2008 as some might think.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The 20 percent solution

The state — i.e., the leaders of both legislative houses and the governor — appear ready to unveil a property tax cut of 20 percent as the first of what should be a series of reforms designed to fix the state’s broken tax system.

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts and Senate President Richard Codey described it as a down payment with more to come. My sense is that the down payment is necessary, but that it has to be part of a larger package of reforms that must include a greater use of income taxes, some other alternative taxes, streamlined government and a reduction in the number of municipalities and school districts, an elected state comptroller, among others.

Some of this is expected to be a part of the Legislative package but, as they say, the devil is in the details and we are without those details at the moment.

Another major piece, however, is out of the Legislature’s hands — increased federal aid to urban schools and urban housing, aid that could allow the state to shift its resources elsewhere.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.