BAY AREA BRAYING

Democrats locked out of the process (DANIEL BORENSTEIN, Jun. 08, 2003, Contra Costa Times)

WITH REPUBLICANS controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency, Democrats on Capitol Hill feel isolated.

"We might as well get in a bus and go to some motel like the Texas legislators," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont. "We literally have been locked out of the process." [...]

From the president's tax cut to last week's House approval of a ban on late-term abortions, the East Bay Democrats watching the rapid change cannot affect the outcome.

When the margin was close, moderates like Tauscher had leverage to try to broker bipartisan compromises -- as she put it, "to find some rational common ground."

That's over. "The majority takes the view that it's their way or the highway," Tauscher said. "For the first time, I feel deeply concerned about the trough that we're in." [...]

It may be a long time before Democrats are heard from again.

"In the current environment," said John Lawrence, a [George] Miller aide since the congressman's 1974 election, "it's like going into the woods and screaming."

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2003 7:57 AM