All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

A Rasmussen Reports poll out this week finds that 36 percent of American adults now call themselves Democrats – a figure that is down two points from a month ago and one that represents a four-year low.

The percentage that describes themselves as Democrats has fallen five points this year, according to Rasmussen. There are still, according to the poll, more Democrats than Republicans: 33.1 percent of Americans say they are members of the GOP. But the 2.9 point gap between the two is the smallest it has been since December 2007.

The percentage of American adults unaffiliated with either party has increased one-half point from last month. It now stands at 30.8 percent in the poll.

The slide in party identification is not good news for Democrats, including President Obama, who has seen his approval rating fall below 50 percent in Rasmussen polling. The drop comes in part because of increasingly skeptical views of his handling of the war in Afghanistan and health care reform.

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Senate Republicans are boasting about their health care opposition strategy, and frustrated Democrats are responding in kind. If the GOP keeps up its stall tactics, Democrats said today, they are prepared to stay on the Senate floor to debate health care through Christmas.

After three days of debate, the Senate has yet to actually vote on any amendments to the health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced. Democrats are placing the blame on Republicans for the delay, CBS News Capitol Hill Producer John Nolen reports. Reid held a special meeting with his party today to discuss how to proceed in the face of a united Republican front.

"At some point, we are going to have to say enough is enough on the stall and start voting," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said.

Democratic members appeared committed to stay and complete health care legislation no matter how long it takes, Nolen reports.

"The general consensus in the room was that we're here, we ought to stay here," said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who led much of the health care debate in a Senate committee over the summer. "As one member said, if those young men and women -- most of whom are under 25 -- are sitting in some outpost in Afghanistan or Iraq on Christmas eve, we can be here on Christmas eve to deal with health care."

Republicans are not shying away from the fact they are trying to slowly kill Reid's bill.

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After a week dominated by Afghanistan, President Barack Obama will try to turn attention to the economy tomorrow when he hosts a jobs forum at the White House. The president will be joined by business leaders and economists to brainstorm ideas to bring down the 10.2 percent unemployment rate.

On the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, House Democrats have a plethora of ideas – and the 2010 midterm elections looming. They are trying to cobble together a new jobs package to specifically tackle the unemployment problem. Lawmakers insist it will be a targeted package, but there are numerous, possibly competing, proposals among the Democratic Caucus.

Here are some of the ideas House Democrats are considering:

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Democratic members of Congress continue to offer mixed, and largely skeptical, reactions to President Obama's announcement that he will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The president will need the support of Congress to fund the stepped up war effort, but his own party has largely been muted in its reaction to his plan.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) opposes the troop buildup and is skeptical a drawdown could begin by July 2011, as the president indicated.

"I oppose sending 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan because I am not persuaded that it is indispensable in our fight against Al Qaeda," Specter said in a statement. "If Al Qaeda can operate out of Yemen or Somalia, why fight in Afghanistan where no one has succeeded?"

He added, "It is unrealistic to expect the United States to be out in 18 months, so there is really no exit strategy."

Specter’s statement addressed a key point of contention with respect to the president's plan: a timeline for withdrawal. Mr. Obama indicated troops should begin to withdraw by 2011, but he did not say when they would be fully out of Afghanistan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), for one, gave his unequivocal support for the president's plan. And he offered support for the timetable.

"President Obama made a convincing case that sending additional troops to Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is critical to our national security," Reid said in a statement.

"More than anything, I am pleased that he made clear that our resources are not unlimited and our commitment is not open-ended," he continued. "By laying out a strategy that will begin to bring our mission to a close within the next 18 months, the president drew an essential distinction between his approach to the war and that of the previous administration."

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Before President Barack Obama addresses the nation Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on his decision regarding the Afghanistan war, he will have to face a possibly tougher audience.

Top congressional leaders, Chairmen and ranking members of the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Appropriations committees have been invited to the White House late Tuesday afternoon to meet with the president for an advanced briefing on the new policy. And it could be tense.

It is expected that Mr. Obama will announce that he will deploy 30,000 to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. That's in addition to 68,000 U.S. troops already in that country, bringing the total number of soldiers to around 100,000. Both the White House Office of Management and Budget and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen have estimated that it would cost $1 billion for each thousand additional troops to pay for logistical support, salaries, equipment, transportation and additional training.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

That cost issue has become a real target for at least two Democrats invited to Tuesday's meeting. The first is the powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations committee, David Obey (D-WI). It's often said that the Appropriations Committees hold the purse strings in Congress. Any additional war spending would have to go through Chairman Obey, and he's threatening to tie those strings tight.

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Blue Dog Democrat Jim Matheson (D-Utah) told CBS News' John Dickerson that members of the moderate Democratic coalition are the "true Democrats because we wear that label even when it may actually effect us in a negative way in our elections," on "Washington Unplugged" Tuesday.

"At the end of the day if people want to question the Democratic credentials of the Blue Dogs," Matheson said, "I'll tell you what, by Blue Dogs running as Democrats we face a handicap in running in our districts. There are other people who by running as a Democrat they automatically win."

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House Democrats would like to pass a jobs bill by Dec. 18, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters today.

With unemployment rates surpassing 10 percent, Democrats say they are getting input from economists on the most effective ways to get more people back in the workforce, CBS News Capitol Hill Producer Jill Jackson reports.

Democrats are considering a range of ideas, Hoyer said, including providing aid to states, giving tax credits to employers as an incentive to hire more people and extending unemployment benefits or the federal subsidy of COBRA health insurance benefits.

Hoyer also said highway spending is on the table. The White House is not interested in signing the full extension of the federal highway spending program this year, which could create thousands of jobs but be very costly.

While he "would not characterize [the jobs bill] as a second stimulus," Hoyer said "we will not have the kind of recovery we want" as long as jobless rates remain so high, Jackson reports. Hoyer added that the bill will be very targeted, but he could not say how large the package will be.

With unemployment now above 10 percent, Senate Democrats are planning to craft a new jobs bill next year, according to a report in The Hill.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said at the Senate Democrats' weekly lunch Tuesday that he is now exploring a job-creation initiative, Sen. Ben Cardin told the newspaper. Cardin said "our caucus will take it up."

What will be in the bill – or when it might be introduced – is not yet known. Sen. Patty Murray , D-Wash., told the Hill that no final decision about legislation has yet been made.

Reid, whose approval rating at home stands at just 32 percent, is among the vulnerable Democrats going into the 2010 midterm election season. The weak economy is working against him, as is the fact that the president's party traditionally loses Congressional seats in midterms. In Nevada, the unemployment rate is 13.5 percent.

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A Gallup poll released today gives the Republicans a 48 percent to 44 percent edge over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot if the 2010 elections were held today. The Republicans have been inching closer to the lead after trailing the Democrats by six points in a similar poll conducted last July.

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Jane Hamsher, the founder of liberal blog FireDogLake.com, said in an interview Tuesday that the liberal base is "worried" about the Obama administration and may "stay home" in the 2010 midterm elections.

Hamsher compared the current situation to the 1994 elections, when, she said, the Democratic base (including union members) was demoralized and disengaged following the passage of The North American Free Trade Agreement. Republicans took control of both the House and Senate in that contest.

She argued that the Obama administration is paying little attention to its base even as the opposition gins up support among the Republican base with events like the Tea Party protests.

"If you're suppressing your base, and the other side is revving up theirs, and midterm elections are all about turning out the base, I sort of question what their strategy is here," she said.

Hamsher has signed on to a financial boycott of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America (the DNC-run operation to mobilize Obama supporters) and the Obama campaign. The boycott was organized by Americablog's John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay over what they see as President Obama and his party's failure to keep its commitments to the gay and lesbian community.

"LGBT Americans, our families, and our friends kept our promise at the ballot box, we now expect President Obama to keep his in the White House," they wrote. In addition to Hamsher, cosponsors include the liberal blog Daily Kos, writer and editor Dan Savage and radio host Michelangelo Signorile.

The boycott will be lifted, Aravosis and Sudbay write, when legislation is signed enacting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama pledged action on all these issues but has not pressed them since entering office.

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