By Todd Eastham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats shot themselves in the foot in last week's election by fostering the perception they were weak on national security and favored higher taxes, the chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council said on Sunday.

Reuters Photo

"It was a combination of Iraq, national security and taxes," Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said on "Fox News Sunday" when asked to explain what went wrong on Nov. 5, when Democrats lost control of the Senate and failed to gain control of the House.

"I think those three issues played to the Republican base, gave them the advantage with swing voters and we really didn't have a message that either energized our base or appealed to independents," said Bayh.

"The fact that our party was divided on what to do about Iraq and the perception that we were weak on the Department of Homeland Defense -- although the differences (with Republicans in Congress) were very narrow -- I think hurt us," Bayh said.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, speaking on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," echoed Bayh. "The backdrop was war on terror, war in Iraq ... and frankly I don't think we articulated our message on the economy as strongly and as effectively as I think we could," he said.

"Those issues that we tried to emphasize in this campaign -- Social Security (news - web sites) and Medicare -- the Republicans were very good at blurring the distinctions," said Bayh.

Bayh said a blurred message on taxes and the economy may have been especially damaging. "I don't think Democrats should stand for higher taxes," he said. "I think we should stand for fiscally responsible tax cuts, tax cuts that will actually help get the economy going -- things like a payroll tax cut, investment tax credits for businesses, a tuition tax credit."

The DLC, which Bayh chairs, was formed in the 1980s to elect moderate Democrats and fight the party's "tax and spend" image.

GROWTH TODAY, DEFICITS TOMORROW

"We need to have stimulus today to get the economy going, a package of tax cuts, some help for the states to deal with their fiscal problems," he said. "We have a longer-term fiscal problem with budget deficits we're going to have to grapple with at some point. ... I think we need to emphasize growth today and deal with the deficits tomorrow."

Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat weighing a presidential run in 2004, told ABC's "This Week:" "There's some truth to the fact that we did not speak to the average worker in America.

"And in many cases, those workers -- some of them even union members -- voted against their economic interests because they voted for people who have taken their money, literally, out of Social Security, out of Medicare, and given it to the wealthiest Americans," said Kerry, who was elected to a fourth term on Tuesday without Republican opposition.

Bayh refused to get into the blame game over who was responsible for the failure to deliver a coherent and consistent Democratic message on those issues to voters.

"I'm not going to get into all that," he said when asked to comment on Georgia Democratic Sen. Zell Miller's calls for the resignation of party chairman Terry McAuliffe. "Victory has many parents. Defeat is an orphan."

Saying this was a case where "reasonably small changes in voter turnout and preference led to huge swings in control here in Washington," Bayh predicted Daschle would be re-elected as the Democratic Senate leader.

"I think Tom will be elected without opposition," he said of Daschle, who will relinquish the post of Senate majority leader to Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott.

Daschle also downplayed the importance of the vote. "There isn't any seismic shift in direction" indicated by the outcome, he said on the NBC news program. "We still have a 50-50 breakdown in our country's voters."

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