Op-Ed Columnist: Another Battle for Bush By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

The front-page headline in The Daily News on Thursday said, ”Santa Comes Early to Wall Street.” It was accompanied by a photo of Philip Purcell, the chairman and C.E.O. of Morgan Stanley, who was described by The News as ”the first titan to cash in at the end of a banner year.”

The article cited several executives who were expected to receive year-end bonuses in the $12 million to $17 million range.

The Bush crowd will tell you that these economic goodies are bound to trickle down. Jobs will become plentiful. Pay envelopes will fatten. Nirvana is just around the corner.

The problem with this scenario is that there are no facts to back it up. The closer you look at employment in this country, the more convinced you become that the condition of the ordinary worker is deteriorating, not improving.

The problem is that we are not creating many jobs, and the quality of those we are creating is, for the most part, not good. Job growth at the moment is about 80,000 per month, which is not even enough to cover the new workers entering the job market.

And when the Economic Policy Institute compared the average wage of industries that are creating jobs with those that are losing jobs, analysts found a big discrepancy. The jobs lost paid about $17 an hour, compared with $14.50 an hour for those being created. …

A fierce and bitter war — not bloody like the war in Iraq, but a war just the same — is being waged against American workers. And so far, at least, the Bush administration has been on the wrong side. …

That’s the reality for workers. The corporations would like to hire as few people as possible, keep wages as low as possible, provide as few benefits as possible and work the workers as long and as hard as possible.

The president of the United States should be allied with working families in this struggle.

MSNBC – Newsweek Poll: Dean Rising

If an election were held today between Dean and Bush, the Vermonter would still likely lose (the president retains a 49 to 42 percent lead among all registered voters in a two-way race). A full 34 percent of all voters give Dean little or no chance of winning in a face-off against Bush.

Dean’s approval ratings may continue to climb, though, considering more than a third (35 percent) of registered Democrats consider Gore’s endorsement significant enough to make them more likely to vote Dean, and a majority (53 percent) of all registered voters think Dean has at least some chance of beating Bush in a hypothetical two-way election against Bush next year.

MSNBC – Can Bush Be Beat?
Vote in this poll.

If Howard Dean is the Democratic Party’s candidate for president next year, how much of a chance do you think he has of defeating George W. Bush in the November election – a good chance, some chance, very little chance, or no chance whatsoever? * 40 web responses

Democrats hurting selves with attacks – Opinion – thespectrum.com

This, of course, could splinter the party as voters tire of the internecine bashing.

For the Democrats to succeed, they must tone down the personal attacks and stick to the issues.

If not, the GOP will have a stranglehold on the White House for four more years.

On Dec. 12, 2000, a divided U.S. Supreme Court halted the presidential recount in Florida, effectively making Republican George W. Bush the ”winner.”

The judicious thing would have been to split Florida’s electoral votes. Gore would have won, just as he won the popular vote. mjh

Sharpton implores Dems to return to their liberal roots / ‘Stop apologizing,’ presidential hopeful says in S.F. speech John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer

The 2000 election, which was decided when the Supreme Court ruled against Democrat Al Gore in the Florida recount, ”was the undermining of democracy itself,” [Al Sharpton] said.

Since then, Sharpton added, ”there’s been a nonmilitary civil war led by the right-wing,” including efforts to put in a new, pro-Republican redistricting plan in Texas [and Colorado] and the successful recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Now the Bush administration has put together a “no dissent” policy when it comes to the war in Iraq or the war against terrorism.

“We’re called unpatriotic if we question (the war in Iraq),” he said. “(But) we’re unpatriotic if we don’t question it.”