The success of alignment in politics

In January, Blackfriars predicted that the Democrats in Washington would be more successful this year because they had set up a war room to coordinate and align their message. This article in the Boston Globe today notes the progress they have made in becoming an effective opposition party and lays some of the credit to the communications coordination provided by the war room.

But 100 days into the new Congress, Democrats have rarely strayed from the party fold. Senate Democrats for the first time have a communications team that operates out of a ''war room" on the third floor of the Capitol, an innovation that has helped solidify opposition to changing Social Security and to some of Bush's conservative judicial nominees. Democrats have resisted calls to offer a competing proposal to overhaul Social Security, preferring to attack Bush's plan.