alternatehistory.com
Part 31: Gephardt Presidency (2004-2008)
It would be under President Gephardt that the tenuous peace that had, by and large, held in the Middle East for the better part of two decades finally collapsed and the region again became a by-word in Washington for intractable problems and internecine violence. The death of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat caused a vacuum in the Palestinian leadership that allowed disaffected members, tired of their old leader's reliance on talks to advance their cause, to splinter away and begin an armed campaign against Israel, known later as the Palestinian Intifada. The Iraqi regime nearly collapsed over night when President Saddam Hussein fell into a coma after suffering a massive stroke. Hussein's second son and heir apparent Qusay briefly succeeded to the role of president, but disaffection with the Sunni regime and the economic mismanagement of the Hussein years led to a Shi'ite uprising, aided with barely-concealed support from neighboring Shia-majority Iran.
Split control of Congress had shut the door on the president's planned initiative to legalize a "card check" system to make it easier to organize workers into unions, but did not prevent him from acting on illegal immigration. The Immigration Reform Act of 2006, passed on bipartisan lines, instituted a system of special status for adults who had illegally immigrated to the United States (while denying them the possibility that they could achieve citizenship except in some circumstances) while making children who had been brought to the United States illegally into resident aliens and eligible for citizenship at age 21. The act, while lauded by immigration reform advocates, was only effective for immigrants who came before January 1, 2002 and had not committed crimes in the United States (other than illegal immigration) or their home countries and not made into a permanent program.
Poor candidate choices by the Republicans mixed with inopportune retirements in vulnerable seats led to the Democrats bucking the trend and picking up two Senate seats in off-year elections— enough for the party to win control of the upper chamber. The House, however, kept with the usual trend of the president's party losing seats in the midterms and was taken by the Republicans, making the midterms the first time in US history that both houses of Congress had flipped control—to different parties.
With only two years left on his term, Gephardt decided to push his luck and try for comprehensive energy reform. The United States energy and power system by this time had become woefully inadequate and relied (more than most other advanced countries) on environmentally harmful substances like oil and coal. Spearheaded by Tennessee Senator Al Gore, the administration passed an ambitious bill that restructure America's power grid and begin a shift towards renewable fuel sources such as solar energy or biodiesel. Despite several moderate Republicans crossing over in support, the bill failed due to the revolt of Democrats from oil and coal-producing states, led by former Vice President Robert Byrd (who had returned to the Senate in 1984), an embarrassing defeat for the president. Legislation was eventually passed successfully to upgrade the United States' power grid, but by this time media attention had been drawn to the presidential race to succeed Gephardt.
President Gephardt got to make his second and final Supreme Court nomination when Justice Griffin Bell retired in 2007. The president selected Second Court of Appeals Justice Sonia Sotomayor of New York, making her the first Hispanic justice on the Court (or the first unquestionably Hispanic justice, following Benjamin Cardozo).
Split control of Congress had shut the door on the president's planned initiative to legalize a "card check" system to make it easier to organize workers into unions, but did not prevent him from acting on illegal immigration. The Immigration Reform Act of 2006, passed on bipartisan lines, instituted a system of special status for adults who had illegally immigrated to the United States (while denying them the possibility that they could achieve citizenship except in some circumstances) while making children who had been brought to the United States illegally into resident aliens and eligible for citizenship at age 21. The act, while lauded by immigration reform advocates, was only effective for immigrants who came before January 1, 2002 and had not committed crimes in the United States (other than illegal immigration) or their home countries and not made into a permanent program.
Poor candidate choices by the Republicans mixed with inopportune retirements in vulnerable seats led to the Democrats bucking the trend and picking up two Senate seats in off-year elections— enough for the party to win control of the upper chamber. The House, however, kept with the usual trend of the president's party losing seats in the midterms and was taken by the Republicans, making the midterms the first time in US history that both houses of Congress had flipped control—to different parties.
With only two years left on his term, Gephardt decided to push his luck and try for comprehensive energy reform. The United States energy and power system by this time had become woefully inadequate and relied (more than most other advanced countries) on environmentally harmful substances like oil and coal. Spearheaded by Tennessee Senator Al Gore, the administration passed an ambitious bill that restructure America's power grid and begin a shift towards renewable fuel sources such as solar energy or biodiesel. Despite several moderate Republicans crossing over in support, the bill failed due to the revolt of Democrats from oil and coal-producing states, led by former Vice President Robert Byrd (who had returned to the Senate in 1984), an embarrassing defeat for the president. Legislation was eventually passed successfully to upgrade the United States' power grid, but by this time media attention had been drawn to the presidential race to succeed Gephardt.
President Gephardt got to make his second and final Supreme Court nomination when Justice Griffin Bell retired in 2007. The president selected Second Court of Appeals Justice Sonia Sotomayor of New York, making her the first Hispanic justice on the Court (or the first unquestionably Hispanic justice, following Benjamin Cardozo).
- lord caedus
- Word Count: 590