Saturday, June 23, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.
WASHINGTON - Six months into the new Congress, an intense battle is under way in the Senate to shape both the perception and reality of Democrats' ability to deliver on campaign promises, a struggle that could determine which party wins in the 2008 elections.
Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, are pushing desperately to make strides toward fulfilling bold campaign promises to change course in the war in Iraq and act on a range of domestic issues. But they say they cannot do all they hoped for with their ambitious agenda and long workweeks if they continue to be blocked by Republicans at every turn.
Republicans are tagging the Democratic-led Congress as do-nothing, applying the same label that was given to the Republican-led 2006 body, which met fewer times than any Congress in generations and devoted its final months in power to symbolic votes on gay marriage and flag-burning.
The facts, however, aren't as important for the future as a simple political reality: The winner in the 2008 elections might well be the side that succeeds in branding Congress with the bumper-sticker slogan that stays with voters.
"What you're seeing is the way Washington works now," said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, who publishes the Rothenberg Political Report online.
Other analysts see the summer months as pivotal. The new Congress is midway through its first year and the pressure is on Democrats to show results. Once summer turns to fall, the Iraq war is expected to again consume debate and , after that, the 2008 political campaigns will begin to drown out any message coming from Congress.
Rothenberg thinks the struggle is now in focus: Democrats trying to score accomplishments and Republicans trying to stop things from happening. In that, the Republicans might have an edge. Democrats have just a 50-49 majority, which is difficult in any arena, but in the Senate it "just makes it impossible" to accomplish much, Rothenberg said.
"Then there will be an argument over who is at fault to get enough done," he said. "I don't know who's going to win that."
Democrats promised voters last fall they would chart a new direction in the war and produce a domestic policy agenda that spoke to middle Americans, who sought relief on gasoline prices, college tuitions and prescription drugs.
After the House blazed through Democrats' top priorities in the first 100 hours of the new Congress, all eyes turned to the Senate. And then those eyes started to glaze over.
The Senate has always been a place where legislation goes to die. The chamber's complex rules give the minority ample power to slow or kill legislation. Sixty votes are needed on many issues, which means a minority of 40 can stop legislation.
Over the first six months, the Senate spent precious hours trying to change course in the Iraq war, only to see President Bush veto legislation to withdrawal troops. Now Democrats are trying to make up time on their domestic agenda.
Only one of the six campaign promises, raising the minimum wage, has been signed into law. Another popular priority - to allow federally funded stem cell research - passed the House and Senate, but was vetoed by Bush.
Both houses have passed ethics reform, energy legislation and a bill to fully implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, but they have not sent them to Bush to sign. Lowering college tuition and prescription drug costs have stalled in the Senate.
Democrats note the other work they have done in passing a budget and funding the government after Republicans left power without doing either.
But on the war in Iraq, Democrats have started tamping down expectations. Reid says the party raised the bar too high because Democrats cannot end the war until more Senate Republicans join them.
So the Democrats are tucking their message of Republican obstructionism into a sound bite, which in turn is being met by a competing sound bite from Republicans: This Congress can't get anything done.
This week, Reid had had enough.
Republicans had been demanding lengthy, procedural back flips on the most routine items, he said, drawing out the time needed for legislation to reach the floor. Reid threatened to keep the Senate in session over the weekend and warned that he would not break for the Fourth of July recess until progress was made on big-ticket items, including the energy and immigration bills.
"Every turn, they attempt to block us," Reid told reporters at his Thursday briefing. "We have done our best to legislate for the things the American people want. They're wasting time It's untoward."
Reid's No. 2 in the Senate, Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin of Illinois, said the costs of this game are high: "Every week that we waste in forced morass is another week where we lose 15 to 20 soldiers" in Iraq.
What's happening in the Senate, Reid told reporters, is a story that needs to be told.
As Reid unleashed procedural weapons to quicken the pace in the Senate, Republicans orated in response.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called it a "legislative train wreck."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said : "It's a very weird way to schedule. I don't know what he's doing. Maybe there's a method to his madness, but it does seem like madness."
Even House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, complained from the other side of the Capitol.
This is not how the Senate is run, Republicans said. They argued that the Senate is the most deliberative body in the world and its members need time to talk and talk and talk before they vote.
Republicans called Reid's tactic a desperate attempt to show his party is making progress on something, anything, as Congress hits the midpoint of the year.
"We think he's going for broke," one Republican leadership aide said. "Hitting the panic button."
The irony is not lost on observers in Washington: Republicans who worked fewer days and accomplished less when they were in charge are trying to flip the do-nothing brand to Democrats.
Nor did it go unnoticed that Democrats are crying foul after having blocked Republicans' ability to reach the 60-vote threshold last year, then successfully criticized Republicans as do-nothings when their agenda, meager as it was, fell apart.
The routine could be dismissed as a maddening blame game if only the stakes were not so high.
Voters are getting restless. Public opinion polls show they are not as fond of the new Congress as they were a month ago, and that they want action.
Without measurable victories, voters will be looking to place blame, said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst at the Cook Political Report.
Whichever message breaks through will be key.
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