WASHINGTON — In style and substance, Democrats are mounting a much more aggressive and unified opposition to President Bush than they did following his election in 2000.
With the expected selection Saturday of firebrand Howard Dean as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Sen. John F. Kerry's rapid reemergence as a Bush critic, and the sharp congressional challenges to Cabinet nominees Alberto R. Gonzales and Condoleezza Rice, Democrats are consistently choosing confrontation over conciliation in their early responses to Bush in his second term.
That approach contrasts sharply with the opening months of Bush's first term, when even some leading party liberals worked with him on education reform and several centrists supported his tax cuts.
But the Democrats' newly assertive tone may reflect more anxiety than confidence.
"What's going on is Democrats are coming to recognize and accept that we are not the majority party anymore," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the centrist New Democrat Network and a former challenger to Dean for the party chairmanship. "Democrats recognize we have to fight harder for our values and our ideas."
Republicans believe the shift opens Democrats up to charges of obstructionism. The Republican National Committee is already branding the Democrats as "the party of 'no.' "
"I don't know of any party that has done well as the party of objection," said Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist for Bush's reelection campaign. "I think it's a big risk and it has a lot of political downside."
Yet some Democrats believe that by following a more partisan course, the party is merely emulating Bush's strategy of primarily pursuing policies that motivate his political base.
Over the long term, it's unclear whether a strategy of ideological polarization will serve Democrats as well as it has Republicans in a country where the number of self-identified conservatives outnumbered liberals by more than 3 to 2 in the last election, according to exit polls. But the tougher tone reflects the urgency in the Democratic ranks about the GOP gains in November and the fervent demand for militancy from the party's liberal base, whose influence appears to be rising.
Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org are far more advanced than party centrists at building a grass-roots organization through the Internet, and are moving with increasing confidence to push the party toward a more combative strategy.
