Democrats becoming the party of ideas

NY Times, reporting on their latest poll:

Fifty percent said Democrats came closer than Republicans to sharing their moral values, compared with 37 percent who said Republicans shared their values. A majority said Republican members of Congress were more likely to be financially corrupt than Democratic members of Congress, suggesting that Democrats may be making headway in their efforts to portray Republicans as having created a "culture of corruption" in Washington.

By better than two to one, Democrats were seen as having more new ideas than Republicans.

I wonder why that could be...

Republican leaders in Congress have all but abandoned efforts to pass major policy initiatives this year, and are instead focusing their energies on a series of conservative favorites that they hope will rally loyal voters in November's congressional elections.

The House and Senate agendas are packed with bills that, even supporters concede, have no chance of passing but that social and fiscal conservatives clamor for, like constitutional amendments banning flag-burning and gay marriage. By bringing them up, Republicans hope to inspire a constituency that has fractured in its support for President Bush and the party.

Republican's have had this pander plan all along. After a year of doing pretty much nothing, they've decided to go back and pander to the base while accomplishing a whole lot more nothing. And most of the country realizes that this means the GOP is clearly running low on new ideas.

The real question will be how much longer will this GOP ploy dupe their base.