Wedge Issue Update

I like to take a look at these so-called "liberal wedge issues," which actually are sensible policies which play to American hopes (whereas by and large, most Republican wedge issues play to American fears) which Democrats have consistently supported, and are making sure everybody knows it in an election year. Last week the Republicans suggested they would buckle in an attempt to defuse a top wedge issue, raising the minimum wage for the first time in a decade:

With Democrats plotting to make the minimum wage a major issue in this fall's congressional races, House Republican leaders are conceding that they may have to yield to pressure for an increase to the federal standard, which has been frozen for nearly a decade.

Faced with elections that could cost them control of Congress, John A. Boehner, the House majority leader, acknowledged Thursday that Republican leaders are likely to reverse course and hold a vote on a proposed minimum wage increase. Though Boehner said it was a "cynical ploy" for Democrats to make it a campaign centerpiece, polls indicate that voters clearly favor an increase in the wage, and Boehner acknowledged that GOP leaders are "probably going to have to find some way to deal with it."

Yes, it's a cynical ploy to support the basic idea that if you work 40 hours a week in this country, you should be paid above the federal poverty line. How cynical to side with millions of poor people!

But as grudingly accepting as Boehner was, just a few days later the Republican agenda had no minimum wage hike on its list, although there was a lot to warm the cockles of James Dobson's heart:

Besides a potential series of votes on family tax breaks, the legislative lineup for the weeks ahead included initiatives that would prohibit any government from using federal money to confiscate guns during emergencies; ensure that local governments do not have to pay damages or lawyer fees in court battles over public expressions of religion, and protect the Pledge of Allegiance from being found unconstitutional.

The agenda also includes a measure to ban human cloning and one requiring that those performing late-term abortions inform women seeking the procedure that the fetus could feel pain and could receive anesthesia. House Republican leaders also plan a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, even though it could not be adopted in this Congress because it has already been rejected by the Senate.

These would be the top problems facing the country, were the country suddenly relocated to Pluto. Here on planet Earth, where we have an intractable occupation of a country in civil war, and rising energy costs, and Army bases that can't keep the lights on, and catastrophic climate change, and where the soaring price of healthcare and college education compounds itself almost daily, these booga-booga issues don't mean a damn. And the most endangered Republicans know it:

"It was stupid and gross," said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut. "They have this obsession to satisfy conservative Republicans who will probably be re-elected no matter what happens. They get job satisfaction, but they are making it more difficult for me to win my race."

Mr. Shays and others said the announcement of the agenda took them by surprise, particularly after House Republicans seemed to be back on track after a few strong weeks of emphasizing new fiscal controls and a push on national security issues.

But even on those issues where the Republican Congress reluctantly votes to get something done for the American people, they face a brick wall in the executive branch:

President Bush will likely cast the first veto of his presidency if the Senate, as expected, passes legislation to expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, White House aide Karl Rove said today.

"The president is emphatic about this," Rove - Bush's top political advisor and architect of his 2000 and 2004 campaigns - said in a meeting with the editorial board of The Denver Post.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed the legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. If the Senate approves the bill it would go to the president's desk.

This is going to be the stand, the first veto of the Presidency, a vote against science and promising medical research that hopes to save lives, not destroy them. There haven't been any vetoes before this because of the end-run Bush has made of the signing statement, but apparently when you are faced with saving lives or saving blastocysts that would be thrown into the dumpster behind the IVF clinic, it's time for a veto.

Because they play to hopes, and they are about getting something done for disadvantaged Americans, these wedge issues don't go away once elections end. They continue to come up month by month and year by year. But the Democrats would do well to continue to highlight them as we head toward November.