Washington — Reveling in their indisputable hold on Congress, Democrats on Thursday cautiously embraced their Republican foes while conceding they now share the burden of governing.
"Our joy today will vanish if we can't produce for the American people," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Senate Democratic campaign committee.
At a raucous rally Thursday afternoon outside the Capitol, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada echoed the sentiment: "It's time for results."
But even as Democrats reached out to President Bush and the GOP, they also cautioned them not to test the limits of their good will. They expressed hope for Bush's stalled immigration bill but urged him to pick judicial nominees with care, and suggested he back off from pressing for quick action on a contentious secret surveillance bill.
"My message to the president would be: Send us moderate judicial candidates," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. "Don't send us extreme candidates, because I think the president will run into trouble if he does."
For Senate Democrats, it was a day to exult in their new majority. With control of the House already assured, Democrats sealed their Senate majority Thursday when Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia conceded his race, clearing the way for Democrat Jim Webb to claim his seat.
Two days after an Election Day rout of the GOP, Democrats and Republicans eyed each other carefully, arguing for bipartisanship even as they pressed their respective agendas.
Democrat Jim Webb arrives to announce his victory in Virginia's pivotal Senate race, giving the Democrats majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years. He spoke Thursday at Courthouse Plaza in Arlington, Va. A 60-year-old Naval Academy graduate, novelist and decorated Vietnam veteran who served as Navy secretary under former President Reagan, Webb opposed the war in Iraq and switched to the Democratic Party. At bottom right is his wife, Hong Le Webb.
Bush urged Congress to take advantage of a short lame-duck session this month to act on two contentious matters left over from before the election: legislation that would give the administration the ability to conduct surveillance on terrorism suspects without obtaining warrants and the confirmation of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador.
Durbin shrugged off the request.
"For a Republican Congress to have gone forward for two years and produced so little, and then for the president to come up with a huge agenda for the next two weeks, you have to ask him, 'Why didn't you use some of the time you spent arguing on some less important issues before?"' Durbin said.
In reaching out to Republicans, Democrats pointedly noted that Republicans had not shown them the same consideration.
"They've set a bad example in not working with us," Reid said. "We're not following that example."
Beside raising the minimum wage, they want to act quickly on legislation to enact recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, reduce dependence on foreign oil, expand stem cell research and reduce the price of drugs offered through Medicare. All those pose potential legislative challenges, but none more than the Democrats' pledge to seek a new direction in the war in Iraq.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.
Curious (anonymous) says…
"while conceding they now share the burden of governing."
Share the burden? When they were in the minority, they didn't share the burden of governing?
Mkh (anonymous) says…
"Beside raising the minimum wage, they want to act quickly on legislation to enact recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, reduce dependence on foreign oil, expand stem cell research and reduce the price of drugs offered through Medicare. All those pose potential legislative challenges, but none more than the Democrats' pledge to seek a new direction in the war in Iraq."
------------------
Interesting that the lobbyist bill is not mentioned here. As far as I've heard it's still on the table for the first 100 hours.
Is the writer implying that the bill does not face opposition? That would be change.
Mkh (anonymous) says…
"they want to act quickly on legislation to enact recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, "
---------------
After they do that, they need to demand that the Commission show the evidence they gathered for the report, which is being held secret until 2009.
75x55 (anonymous) says…
"reduce dependence on foreign oil,"
YEaah!!! Let's get them roughnecks loaded up and on the way to ANWR! Yippee, someone's finally talkin' sense now.
Mkh (anonymous) says…
RT, at the risk of getting into another discussion with you in which it is neccessary to use to logic, I have to say that neither "point 1" or "point 2" makes any sense.
1) Enacting the 9/11 Commission has nothing to do with impeachment. Although I sincerely wish it did.
2) Did you not get the memo? These lies about Pelosi that you have been imitating off of conservative talk radio have been disproven weeks ago. Her companies that employ non-union members provide higher wages and benefits than the unions. I'm not a huge Pelosi fan in my own right (although she is better than the alternatives), but this slander has got to stop if we are ever going to discuss real issues again.
Mkh (anonymous) says…
Posted by 75x55 (anonymous) on December 4, 2006 at 7:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"YEaah!!! Let's get them roughnecks loaded up and on the way to ANWR! Yippee, someone's finally talkin' sense now."
----------------------
Even if the drilling in ANWR was extremely sucessful it would only reduce foreign oil usage for about 20 years. After that we will hit the Peak Oil disaster one way or the other.
We need to fix the problem by converting to renewable resources instead of doing the easy move of a short term solution, which only hands the problem to our children.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
Righty,
Apparently,
San Fran Nan and her crew ain't gonna enact all the 9-11 commish recommendations, because when it comes to the points RE reformatting how the congress oversees/appropriates for security/intel, they're already backing off the promise of "enacting *all* the 9-11 recommendations." funny that. a campaign promise already broken.
and, the republicans should give them what they gave the republicans when they were dems in minority.
"conservative" demorats...don't exist. some were elected as such, but their leaders are wacko lefty fringie nuts like Fortney "Pete" Stark and Nancy Pelosi. their bloggers are way out on the left fringe. the demorats will inevitably be tugged way out to the left and the voters who thought they'd gotten "conservative" democrats in the house will have buyers' regret. I believe it will only be about March/April for this to set in.