Heh. This story seems pretty funny. Appears the Democrats in Washington are starting to get concerned about their own low public opinion poll numbers (actually, even lower than the President’s), so what are they going to do – start governing better? Of course not, they’re going to try and remind voters of who they replaced in power – the Republicans!

House Democratic leaders, concerned about the public’s downbeat view of Congress, launched a public relations offensive Monday to polish the image of the new majority after a series of legislative setbacks this month.

The campaign, ranging from traditional events to conference calls with groups outside of Washington, is designed to circumvent the national news media. Democratic operatives believe that Washington reporters are so fixated on the party’s standoff with President Bush over Iraq that no other message is reaching the public.

In a private meeting for scores of staffers, top advisers to the party’s leadership called on every Democratic lawmaker to amplify domestic accomplishments, from raising the minimum wage to expanding college aid, in a series of events back home in their districts.

Part of the Democrats’ new offensive will remind voters exactly who they voted out of office last fall, particularly with regard to the updated ethics and lobbying laws.

“This is a distinction that is very important to make,” said Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).

The plan is drawn, in large part, to highlight Democrats’ domestic accomplishments in a bid to bolster the sagging popularity of Congress, according to staffers briefed on the plan.

This would all be well and good, except at some point you gotta start putting some meat on those bones. Exactly what achievements Democrats in Washington can actually lay claim to seem, frankly, a bit beyond my grasp to comprehend. After all, they’ve tried to force the President to withdraw troops from Iraq on a predetermined schedule (and lost), tried to shove illegal immigration ‘reform’ down the throats of unwilling Americans (and lost), tried to override the President’s veto preventing expansion of government programs designed for the poor to the middle class (and lost), picked a fight with radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh (and lost), and, most recently, tried to bring an ill-advised resolution condemning Turkey for its actions during the Armenian genocide of 1915 to the floor for a vote during a time of increased tension between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq (withdrawn). What have they not done? Come up with any kind of proposal that would reduce taxes and federal spending, support the effort in Iraq, strengthen the country’s borders and security, and provide leadership on reducing the costs of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare that, like it or not, are going to have to be dealt with by someone with vision and creativity somewhere down the line.

What the Democrats are slowly finding out is that when the Republicans were in power they had it pretty good. You see, it’s always easier to be the minority opposition party when it comes to governing and legislating. You don’t have to actually be ‘for’ anything – you can make hay just by throwing daggers at the people in power. Now that it is the Dems who are in charge, people are slowly coming around to the realization that, besides being for higher taxes and bigger government, and against the military, the Democrats really don’t stand for much of anything. All of their so-called “ideas” are nothing but rehashed, tired old proposals left over from either FDR’s “New Deal” days or back when Jim Morrison was singing “Light My Fire”.

They have no new ideas. And they have no new approaches. Why? Because, even more than their fat, lazy, and pork-spending Republican counterparts in Washington, people like “San Fran Nan” Pelosi and senators like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer have invested all their political capital into an American defeat in Iraq and are beholden to every special interest that stands to gain from increased federal spending and government program expansion – the welfare state, the trial lawyers, and the labor unions; in other words, anyone against the power of the individual, the fortunes of the U.S. military, and the free-market economy.

This latest initiative by the Democrats is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig, doomed to fail like so many of their other initiatives to this point.