Redstate

By jannelsen Posted in User Blogs — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

For what it's worth, I translated this article from Der Spiegel Online. (Think the translation is pretty accurate, but stand to be corrected.)

It caught my eye because the author seems to think the Democrats are in dire straits, that the filibuster strategy won't help them, and Bush will probably pursue a multifaceted approach. It includes lots of the traditional simplifications that foreign reporters make everywhere, but in general, it's OK.

P.S. Thune is called "Der kleine Held," which literally means "The Little Hero," but which I translated as "The Giant Killer." I assume there's a story or just folkloric tradition that calls a giant killer, the littlest hero, or something like that.

Translation, and it's loose, below.The giant killer from South Dakota

By Hasnain Kazim

Even as the last votes in the U.S. wait to be counted, one thing is certain: The Republicans have expanded on their previously narrow majority in Congress, President Bush is more powerful than ever. Especially depressing for the Democrats: Their minority leader in the Senate, Thomas A. Daschle, was voted out of office.

HAMBURG -- The giant killer's name is John Thune. His deed occurred in South Dakota, a state whose importance with its approximately 764,000 inhabitants, spread across nearly 200,000 square kilometers -- twice the size of Portugal -- had been up to now relatively limited. This northern state, in the middle of the United States, calls the coyote its official animal, the honeybee its official state insect.

South Dakota's significance will return to its former level in just a few days, but for now, every newspaper is mentioning the farm state. Why? Because the Republicans -- in congressional elections parallel to the presidential vote -- achieved something that hasn't occurred in more than a half-century: voting out the top Democrat in the Senate. (In Germany, one would say "Fraktionschef.") In 1952 Republican Barry Goldwater knocked off the Democratic Majority Leader, Senator Ernest McFarland. The loser of 2004 -- Thomas A. Daschle.

A deep valley for the Democrats

Daschle, 56, a former Air Force officer, politician from South Dakota, served as Majority Leader when the Democrats still controlled the majority in the Senate. With the off-year congressional elections in November 2002, the opposition's march into the valley began, and its bottom may have been reached with this year's presidential election. Daschle was suddenly just the minority leader. For the first time since 1934 a U.S. president had the majority in both houses of Congress, the House as well as the Senate. Although the party of the president normally loses seats in the so-called midterm elections, the Republicans gained.

Daschle's 18-year Senate career ended because his challenger, John Thune, a smart businessman, successfully cast him as the "Obstructionist in Chief." On Tuesday, 197,814 South Dakotans cast their votes for Thune, 193,279 for Daschle, 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent. The new number of misfortune for the Democrats: 4,535 votes.

Thune's victory and Daschle's defeat symbolize the results of the congressional elections: The Republicans' advantage has grown. Previously, Republicans had 51 senators, the Democrats 48, with one senator independent; in the House of Representatives 228 members adhere to the Republicans, 205 to the Democrats, one is independent and one seat is vacant. Every two years, a third of the total 100 senators -- every state has two -- is elected for a term of six years. All 435 legislators in the House -- every state sends to Washington a number according to its population -- are voted upon every two years as well.

According to preliminary results, the Republicans can anticipate 53 to 55 senators and at least 229 seats in the House.

Christian Hacke, a political science professor from Bonn, regards the results as "an enormous increase in power for Bush." In an interview with Spiegel Online, the expert on U.S. politics says the president now has three options before him: "First, he continues on as earlier. Second, he understands his reelection to be both a wordly and heavenly mandate for his neoconservatism, and attempts to impose his will even more strongly upon the world. Or third, he becomes more pragmatic, just as Ronald Reagan did in his second term of office." A now more comfortable Republican majority would favor the second option; the third option would recognize international pressure as well as the fact the Iraq engagement has huge costs. In the end, Hacke believes, Bush will select different paths depending on the political circumstances he faces.

A blockade through filibusters?

At any case, the Democrats have nothing domestically to challenge the White House. Whether it's a ban on same-sex marriages or abortion, whether it's a hard course in the fight against crime or terrorism, or the restrictions on civil or personal liberties on behalf of national security, whether it's tax relief for the rich or a downsizing of the state or the increase in privatization in all areas -- only Bush's will counts.

Perhaps, if the Democrats achieve more than 40 votes -- which it appears they will -- they can rest their plans on the so-called filibusters -- the parliamentary tradition in which Senate decisions can be put off by endless speeches. This delaying tactic of the opposition can only be put off with a majority of 60 votes, that the Republicans, even with their successes, will probably not achieve. But the Democrats know: The voters will recognize that a blocking strategy is no constructive course of action, especially not after September 11, 2001. Since then, only a strong politician is a good politician. Filibusters will not help the Democrats out of their valley.

Bush has achieved what he hoped to achieve: He faces a Congress that can neither counter his international course, nor stand in the way of his naming rightwing or conservative judges to the Supreme Court. Republican Speaker of the House as well as the Senate Minority Leader also make it plain that their majority will be used to drive through Bush's legislative agenda.

Supreme Court Justice: The direction of a defining personnel decision

A personnel decision about the Supreme Court, the highest court of the United States, looms in the near future. Only one of the lifetime appointed justices, the arch-conservative African American Clarence Thomas, is under 65 years old. The oldest, John Paul Stevens, is 84. Two justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steven Breyer, were nominated by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton. Five of the robe wearers are considered conservative, four as more liberal. Bush's playing field: At least two judges of the left side are pondering the idea of retirement.

The direction the U.S. government will take will be revealed in just a few days, namely, when Bush introduces his new cabinet. Who will set the future tone, the iron hawk or the moderate conservative? "This decision," says Christian Hacke, "will be a measure for all that follows."

And no one will think about South Dakota...anymore.