Anne Lewis' Weekly Rant

How's that whole mandate business working out for you, Mr. President?

Remember a month ago when George Bush was trying to convince us he has some mythical "mandate" to dismantle Social Security? Turns out that even some members of his own party didn't really believe it.

Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine, have refused to endorse Bush's privatization scheme. Even one of Bush's top White House advisors was quoted anonymously today as concerned that losing on Social Security now will cause Republicans to lose Senate races next year.

My question is where's the vaunted Republican party discipline when they really need it?

Rick Santorum, Man of the People?

A new and improved Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was in the news this week offering a proposal to raise the minimum wage. Well...sort of.

Actually, Slick Rick's proposal would have made it harder to collect overtime pay by abolishing the 40-hour work week and replacing it with an 80-hour two-week accounting period. It would have forced waiters and other tipped employees to work for tips only by allowing employers to pay those employees zero actual salary.

Despite all that, we just might go along with Santorum's new-found "compassionate conservatism." Except that his minimum wage proposal was so stingy that even Sen. Arlen Specter, another Republican from Pennsylvania, rejected it in favor of Sen. Ted Kennedy's much larger proposed increase. That's right. Santorum's proposal is so bad that some Republicans are supporting Ted Kennedy instead.

The truth is that Rick Santorum is no friend of working families. He's voted against increasing the minimum wage at least half a dozen times. Now that his 2006 reelection bid is shaping up to be the fight of his political life - Presto! - he is trying to recast himself as a dedicated man of the people. We're not going to buy it. Of course, with the minimum wage so low, I'm not sure we can afford it.

Pennsylvania Polling

More good news from the Keystone State just today. SurveyUSA has Santorum losing 49-42 to leading Democratic candidate and current state Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr. It's a good thing Sen. Kennedy is trying to enact a real minimum wage increase. A two-term senator with numbers this low this early is likely to be looking for a new line of work real soon.

Senate Republicans Oppose Everything

Senate Budget Committee Democrats are doing their best to make the Bush budget into something tolerable. It's not working.

Yesterday, Budget Committee Republicans voted against Democratic efforts to do the following: save Social Security first, restore fiscal responsibility, put more cops on the streets, equip and train first responders, revitalize communities, provide full funding for veteran's health care, and let Medicare negotiate better prescription drug prices for seniors.

There's still one more vote left on preventing the kicking of puppies. We'll see where the Republicans come down on that one.

Quote of the Day

"We don't do Lincoln Day dinners in South Carolina. It's nothing personal, but it takes awhile to get over things." -- Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), speaking to the annual Knox County Lincoln Day dinner

Well, at least it's nothing personal.

Sincerely,

Anne H. Lewis


Want to help us beat Rick Santorum and elect more Democrats to the Senate in 2006? Make a contribution to the DSCC today!


http://www.dscc.org/contribute