Both barrels

Digby's friend Deep Insight has written a lengthy essay on the current state of the upcoming election. Worth a read in it's entirety, but there are three items I'd expound on:

…Bush has a 25% approval rating. There is absolutely no political price in opposing the initiatives of the GOP.

Yes, Goddammit – and it's about time the Democrats realized that the next time the administration makes a "demand," they can actually improve their image simply by holding a press conference and saying "No."

They need to take Feinstein, Schumer, and Rockefeller to the woodshed and inform them that cozying up to the administration is not what their constituents are demanding. Smarter observers than I am have pointed out repeatedly that Congressional approval ratings are low not because of all the bills left unsigned, but because of the bills they have signed.

The GOP base hates them because they are democrats, but the democratic base is incensed because they haven't stopped the president.

2006 was a clear message to slam on the brakes, and we are still rolling downhill.

Memo to democrats in congress:

1) Refuse to put administration bills to a vote – and publicly declare why you are doing so.
2) Force the GOP in congress to stop your legislation and denounce them for doing so until they relent.

The number of times that the GOP is able to block legislation and the headline reads "Democrats fail to get the votes," is just appalling. They need to get the message out that the bills are being blocked by the GOP – not because it's good politics, but because people don't know the bills are being blocked.

When your approval rating is as low as the GOP, why should they now get a pass on their bad behavior? Put the spotlight on them and see how they run.

Before a single vote is cast, the pundit class has awarded the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton. The Republicans are already running against her, and McCain has an attack ad up of dancing hippies at Woodstock (one more time let’s go back to 1969). Certainly, she is in a commanding position with plenty of money and universal name identification. She remains the favorite, and the press has even decided it is time to harass her.

I was going to post a screed on why I fear Hillary Clinton, but most of what I'd say is pretty much in Deep Insight's post. Why is it assumed that she will be the nominee? I know Obama is now polling ahead in the recent ABC poll, but where on earth did we get the idea that these early numbers are going to predict Iowa? Iowa was where Howard Dean met an untimely death at the hands of "captain charisma" John Kerry. It's a freaking crapshoot – viability thresholds and gamesmanship can play havoc with the pollsters' shiny numbers.

Hillary Clinton is the wet dream candidate for the GOP.

Here they are getting pummeled in the polls, independents aren't breaking for them and GOP voters crossing the aisle is a real possibility.

What candidate ensures that no GOP voter will hold their nose and vote democratic?
What candidate can give even the left-leaning independents pause?
What candidate does the GOP have attack ads already in the can for?
What candidate will calcify feelings of 'nothing changes in Washington, so why bother?' in democratic voters?

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary and Hillary in that order.

You can see it in any Fox-crafted talking point – they're happy to presume the results of the primaries, and plant the sense of inevitability in the minds of people everywhere. It's going to be her, so why go to the polls?

She's got an early poll lead, and we all know what those are worth. I'm hoping people don't stay home. New Hampshire, Iowa? You stay home, you just voted for the winner – and you've no right to grouse.

George Bush should be tied so tightly around the Republican candidates' necks they can hardly breathe. Every quote of support, every vote, every word of worship should be thrown in their faces and there is a ton of it. He is the most unpopular president, for the longest sustained time, of any president in history. He is the modern Herbert Hoover, a man whose name should become an epithet.

A-freaking-men. The sycophants need to be shown the error of their ways. Play their every soundbite from June 2003 until they beg you to stop. Then show footage of them hugging the president as he stumps for them in 2004.

There are plenty of Dems who fell into this camp as well, and I wouldn't spare them, either. You had the opportunity to be counted and you bowed to the administration. You made the call, you pay the price.

I'm fine with allowing the GOP to pretend that George W. Bush never happened, so long as their public declarations are demonstrated to be false in an equally public setting. Let them try, but the Bush albatross has landed squarely on them.

They earned it.