The articles with generic nouns in plural form

0Hi everyone,02br
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00Just when I thought I cracked the articles with generic plural nouns, I stumbled on this NYTimes essay and I'm totally confused. Can anyone exlain why they made the choices I'm highlighting below in colour. Cheers 05000 ---- Please ;( I'm tearing my hair off!!!02br
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01a01font00U.S. House of Representatives02font02a01font00 Democrats will more than fully fund President 02font01a01font00George W. Bush's02font02a01font00 request for money to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. 02font01font00(Why not 'the Democrats"? They mean the entire group of democrats in House which can be enumerated person by person, not their subgroup, they dont mean democrats in the sense that 'any' democrat!)02font02br
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01font00Murtha told reporters Democrats were still discussing provisions he wants to attach requiring that U.S. troops have proper training, adequate equipment and enough rest before being deployed into combat.02font00 01font00(The same remark)02font02br
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01font00The additional money House Democrats want to add in includes $1 billion more for ...02font00 01font00("This is even more explicitly restrictive as before and thus requires 'the'?)02font02br
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01font00If it's some special NYT journalistic style can anyone confirm if 'the' would be more natural/possible in other discourses? And if yes, can anyone explain why NYT still used 'the' with democrats in the following situations which seem to contradict the previous 3 examples.02font02br
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01font00The Democrats argue that secret-ballot elections are often unfair, with companies frequently firing, intimidating and spying on pro-union workers.02font00 01font00(exactly as any sentence above, but they used 'the' now?)02font02br
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01font01font00The Bush administration finished negotiations with Panama after the Democrats won control of Congress in November02font00 02font01font00(the second clause looks exactly like any other sentence given above?)02font02br
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01font01font00But several Republicans said the Democrats embraced the bill as payback for labor’s help in last November’s elections.02font00 02font01font00(again the same?)02font02br
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01font01font00Only 62 percent said the Democrats — not the 02font01a01font00Republicans02font02a01font00 — were more likely to improve the health care system.02font00 02font01font00(yet again?)02font02br
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