Democratic Party 2.0: Wary of Hot-Button Topics

WASHINGTON - April 18, 2007 — -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took no position on two of the hottest social issues in America today -- guns and abortion -- in a week when those subjects were brought before the public in quite compelling ways.

Asked about this morning's historic and unprecedented decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a state ban on an abortion procedure, Pelosi -- longtime backer of abortion rights -- said, "This is an issue I need to review." Reid immediately changed the subject to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. "That's what it brings to my mind," Reid said.

Two days after the slaughter of 32 innocents on the campus of Virginia Tech by a shooter with two handguns, Pelosi demurred on whether Congress was in any mood to examine gun control laws.

"The mood in Congress is one of mourning, sadness and the inadequacy of our words" to help the bereaved, Pelosi said.

Welcome to the Democratic Party 2.0. After years in the political wilderness -- President Bush in the White House, Republican majorities in the House and Senate -- Democrats are wary of engaging in hot-button social issues such as the "3 G's" -- guns, God and gays.

Many political observers, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, believe former Vice President Al Gore's support of gun control cost him the 2000 election, essentially handing over to Bush states such as Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia.

At a Harvard seminar following the 2000 election, Steve Rosenthal, then the AFL-CIO's political director, was asked what the Democratic party should do on gun control.

"Shut the hell up," he said.

Democrats have largely heeded that advice.

Moreover, many in their ranks who are responsible for Democrats having recaptured the House and Senate -- what Speaker Pelosi calls "the majority makers" -- hold conservative positions on many of these issues, such as Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Jim Webb, D-Virginia, and Bob Casey Jr., D-Penn. Reid himself is a foe of abortion who has in the past voted in favor of a ban on the procedure abortion opponents call "partial birth abortion."