WASHINGTON — The latest fund-raising letter from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is a fascinating piece. The appeal for help, signed by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, contains not one but two American flag cutouts and features a "Spirit of America" survey.
In one paragraph, it declares that "our nation and its political leaders have made it clear to the world that America stands united in our battle to overcome terrorism." And two paragraphs later, it promises that "in the campaign ahead, we (Democrats) will discuss how best to stimulate the American economy, protect our environment, strengthen our children’s education, improve our nation’s health care system, fund Medicare and Medicaid and safeguard Social Security for an increasing number of seniors."
That, friends, is known as changing the subject. And any doubts I may have had that changing the subject is the fundamental Democratic strategy for the midterm elections vanished in the first few minutes of an interview the other morning with the newest star in the party, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.
In January, Pelosi will succeed David Bonior, who is retiring to run for governor of Michigan, as Gephardt’s deputy, the minority whip. She is the first woman in either party to rise that high in the House leadership, and she got there the hard way, besting Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland in a spirited contest last month.
When I asked the new whip what she had in mind, she had a ready answer: "I will make the economy the central organizing principle of the office," she said. And for the next half hour, she turned almost every question into a disquisition on the "fundamental differences" between Republicans and Democrats on all of the traditional lunch-pail and kitchen-table topics that were highlighted in the campaign committee’s fund-raising letter.
"I am doing this with Dick Gephardt’s full support," she assured me unnecessarily, "not on my own." From top to bottom, Democrats are convinced that the way to protect their narrow Senate majority and pick up the handful of seats they need to take control of the House is to get the debate away from Afghanistan and anthrax and back onto their favorite domestic issues.
That focus is instinctive for Pelosi. Though she is a sleek and fashion-conscious fixture in San Francisco, arguably the nation’s most sophisticated city, she grew up in blue-collar Baltimore, where he father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was mayor. "In those days, in a Democratic family," Pelosi said, "it was only the economy" that drove people to vote.
Now, her interests are broader. She is the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, monitoring the work of the CIA and other security agencies in the forefront of the battle against terrorism. Like any politician from the Bay Area, she is attuned to the promise — and the problems — of the high-tech and New Economy entrepreneurs. She is a feminist whose capture of the No. 2 job has evoked admiring articles from Allentown to Albuquerque, not to mention the University of Florida Alligator.
"It’s the term ‘whip’ that gets their attention," Pelosi joked.
But she is also a veteran of the Appropriations Committee, where the abstract debates over priorities are reduced to concrete terms: How is the budget pie to be divided?
Since the start of the recession and Sept. 11, those choices have become much tougher, and the partisan divide more evident. But can the Democrats really shift the focus from the war — where President Bush enjoys broad public support — to these domestic issues?
It is more than likely that the voters are moving in that direction. Last week, the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies reported that, given four choices, 41 percent of those surveyed said the slowdown of the economy is their main concern, compared with 39 percent who chose the threat of terrorism on U.S. soil. The course of the overseas war on terrorism and the anthrax threat finished in single digits.
Leading House Republicans already have begun lobbying the White House to be sure President Bush’s State of the Union Address next January is more than another exhortation to fight worldwide terrorism, but includes a domestic agenda of his own. They can see what the Democrats are up to.
David Broder can be reached at The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200.
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