People will tell themselves lies. Everyone does it; it is part of making life more comfortable. They will say that what they do matters more than it does, that their activism has a bigger impact than it in fact does, that they are better looking or more popular than they really are. Most of the time there is not a lot of harm in these little lies. However when you are a United States Senator, these lies have the potential to do a great deal of harm.
The Senate has a lie that is causing a great deal of trouble, and the real problem is that only the Democrats in the Senate believe it. It is the lie of the "Greatest Deliberative Body In The World". This is the idea that these 100 men and women who were elected by the people of their various states are somehow better able to dispassionately judge the needs of the nation and then act on their sage wisdom.
LANGUAGE WARNING: Today's story is uncharacteristically blunt, and from this moment forward we will be using lots of inappropriate language in making our points.
It is by now fairly well known that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's White House Chief of Staff, had a bit of a blow-up with liberals who were ready to start running ads against "blue dog" Democrats who were working very hard to shut down the health care reform effort.
Now we're not gonna get in the middle of that argument today; instead, since we're finally getting a chance to talk, I figured me and Rahm could get a few other things out of the way that have been on everyone's mind for the past year or so.
April 17th and 18th - Democracy for America will be hosting a weekend long Campaign Academy. I wanted to pass it along to everyone because it is a great weekend of education, hanging out with activists and I will be the fundraising trainer for this event. I just got back from leading the fundraising part of the training in Santa Barbara and it is a really amazing training. Please consider passing this along to everyone who maybe interested in this event. Consider sending your boards, members of your staff or any activists who you think would enjoy learning more about all parts of a campaign.
The DFA Campaign Academy mission is to focus, network, and train grassroots activists in the skills and strategies to take back our country, manage successful campaigns or run for office themselves.
Our Campaign Academy weekends are 16 hours of interactive workshops that bring hundreds of local activists, campaign staff and candidates together for 2 days of intensive campaign training. Experienced campaign professionals lead sessions in voter contact, fundraising, communications, on-line organizing and much more to empower progressive activists with the skills to win in November and beyond. Attendees also meet with dozens of local progressive candidates and learn about exciting job and volunteer opportunities in their area. And of course, everyone receives their own copy of DFA's 180-page Campaign Training Manual.
Year after year, the DFA Campaign Academy is building a grassroots infrastructure of skilled progressive activists in all 50 states.
As of this post there are 24 Senators signed on to the use of reconciliation to not only pass comprehensive health care reform, but to use this process to add the public option back in. The White House and the House Leadership have made it clear this is going to be the Senates call from start to finish. If they actually get their act together and pass it, then the other two parts of this dance will be more than happy with that music.
"Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time." - Harry S. Truman
What is it with Democrats when I see headlines like this:
Dems Worry That Regulatory Reform Messaging War May Already Be Lost
and in the story this:
Already, it's been reported that Dodd is considering dropping one of the chief components of reform -- an independent consumer protection agency -- in hopes of getting GOP support, a move vaguely reminiscent of what happened to the public option for insurance coverage.
What we want is results from the election for changing society for the better, to have accountability for those who have committed acts against our Constitution and laws and to rescind laws and precedent from the previous administration that contravene basic human rights that have been promulgators and signatories to conventions, agreements and treaties on the international scale.
We want results not "bipartisanship". "Bipartisan" now means "being played for a fool". Why should I vote for fools?
With a discouraged base that the Democrats have and an off year election in November do you think that is going to play well?
According to The Hill, Harry Reid says it's coming this week, and will have bipartisan support.
"As of last night, there will be Republican support for this bill," Reid told reporters...
"Frankly, it's not ready yet . . . We're certainly open to it. There's a chance we can move this forward on a bipartisan basis," McConnell said...
If everything else is going to be put on hold while the White House and Congress focus on jobs, they need to maximize the effort. Atrios says it best: "It's the actual jobs that matter, not the trying to look like you're doing something on jobs."
Why not play hardball? Why not get a good jobs bill in the pipeline? Let the people see what the Republican party stands for- to vote with the Dems on a job creation bill or to stand for 10 percent unemployment.
But...Nooooooo. We still get this "bipartisan" crap from President Obama and Senator Reid that furthers the Republican "No" machine. Ultimately it disheartens and turns off our people when it comes time to vote.
This is totally disheartening because this is fool's errand:
He urged Democrats to work with their Republican counterparts.
"We can't solve all of our problems alone," Obama said, as the audience sat in silence.
I will not work with a dishonest, lying partner. I would expect that the Democratic elected officials will reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. But from the disaster of last year the Democratic leadership, including President Obama, need to have their spines implanted.
I do not have to go into why this is so bad:
"We can't return to the dereliction of duty," Obama said. "America can't afford to wait, and we can't look backward."
Yes, we have to let the sleeping dogs of torture, extraordinary rendition, and holding people accountable for Katrina, Iraq, and the plundering of America by Wall Street because our past will never come to haunt us. Or is it the fact that the being responsible is not an American value anymore? We are a nation of WATB if we cannot shine the light of justice on our actions and our selves.
There is a tendency in politics to see everything in a small time horizon. The fight in front of you is the one that is most important one there is. The problem with this approach is that it lets the clock run out on issues that you should be able to see coming and address before they become a catastrophe. In the late winter and early spring of 2008 everyone knew there was something very rotten in the housing market. Prices were falling and the number of loans in default or foreclosure was growing every month. This would have been a good time take action to address it, but there was a presidential primary race and a big election coming up, so it went on, basically ignored until the weakness in housing caused the financial system to collapse.
31 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a "Racist who hates White people" -- the description once adopted by Fox News's Glenn Beck. 33 percent were not sure, and 36 percent said he was not a racist.
There is a reason why President Obama's repeated calls for "bipartisanship" is neither politically feasible or wise.
With the rise of the "Tea Party" movement and the demise of a "big tent" Republican party are not separate events but dovetail neatly into the transformation of the Republican Party into a "rump" or regional party. We witness the extinction of the "Rockefeller" faction as well as the moderate faction (e.g., Charlie Crist, R-FL gov) being cleansed from the Party. Why else would the RNC have to entertain "purity" tests for candidates in the 2010 election cycle except for the fact that the Tea Party movement, as epitomized by Palin, is exerting tremendous pressure to remake the Republican Party into something that exposes the dark underbelly of American politics.
Markos now has hard polling data to back up our knowledge that the Republican base is composed of the very fringe people that are now given the bullhorn of corporate media transmissions.
Kos states:
Their base are conspiracy mongers who don't believe Obama was born in the United States, that he is the second coming of Lenin, and that he is racist against white people. They already want to impeach him despite the glaringly obvious lack of high crimes or misdemeanors. If any Republican strays and decides to do the right thing and try to work in a bipartisan fashion, they suffer primaries and attacks.
Further more, is it any wonder that Republicans/Tea Baggers want to rewrite history to show that Sen. Joe McCarthy was right, and that the federal budget surplus was the work of Republicans in Congress which is exclusively for their political benefit. This means Republicans/Tea Baggers are irresponsible in their sworn oath to the Constitution and their office.
Bipartisanship is dead. It is time to make a clear call, "Work with the President or get out of the way!"
Last night the President did one of the things that he does better than almost anyone else, he gave a great speech. Taking the tone of confidence without arrogance, being willing to face the Republicans and put them in box by either applauding him or failing to applaud their own proposals, even by chiding them for their recalcitrance and stance of know nothingism. While it remains to be seen if he will push for the follow through which his speech called for it is interesting that the end of his speech was a political trope that should be dear to every politician.
It's always about the financial cost never about the morality of preventing needless deaths of Americans.
Without strong leadership by President Obama this is the result:
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows 61 percent of adults surveyed saying Congress should "drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs."
Making a molehill into a mountain because Republicans see it this way on the SCOTUS decision in Citizens United:
Republican strategist John Feehery on Ed Shultz just said that Move-On raised so much money in the last election that this ruling will level the playing field.
Consider Exxon-Mobil. In 2008, its political action committee (PAC) raised about $1 million from its employees and offices. Its profits that year -- which it was legally barred from pouring into politics -- were $45 billion. It was illegal for Exxon to spend that money on elections; now with this decision, it will be legal. Exxon or any other firm could spend Bloomberg-level sums in any congressional district in the country against, say, any congressman who supports climate change legislation, or health care, etc.
Sure makes sense to me that SCOTUS would rule that a corporation (which is a legal fiction) equals the rights of a human being for the purpose of corrupting democracy.
$45,000,000,000 dollars from one "corporate person" equals the average $50.00 contribution amount of an individual donor to Moveon.org is typical Republican math at work.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said a more modest approach would be a "reasonable alternative" that could appeal to the public even if Republicans still oppose it.
"Given the public concern, I think that we ought to focus on that which...the public can support and will be positive in terms of making health care more affordable and obtainable," he said.
Today the headline will read, "Democrats lose 60th seat", which is true. But when we are thinking about those 60 seats we do have to remember that the Democrats in the Senate did not have 60 votes very long. Sen. Franken, who became the 60th member of the Democratic caucus, was only sworn in on July 8th. That is 166 days to today, if we add in the two weeks or so it will take to certify Senator-elect Brown that will make the 60-seat majority only 180 days long.
In some ways, we never really had a 60-seat majority. Leaving out the weak-sister Democrats like senators Nelson and Lincoln, there was always the problem of so-called Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman. Knowing as we now do that he was the first pick for Vice Presidential running mate for John McCain it is hard for anyone to really count him as a Democrat in anything but name.
The Dog, like a lot (most?) of the liberals on in the blogosphere is really not happy about the shape that Health Care Reform has taken. One of the hardest things about being an activist is how often you ask for policy that is like a pastrami on rye, and get handed a crap sandwich on Wonder Bread. Sure, you got a sandwich, just not one you asked for or would want to eat.
There is a lot of despair about the state of the Democrats who are in control of the Congress these days. To be fair there is a lot to despair about given the performance of many of the old guard in the party. On the flip side, there is a realization that we are indeed better off with Democrats in control of the government, as the example of 8 years of misrule by the criminal Bush administration clearly shows. Finally there is a significant worry that the Democrats are going to lose ground, and if thing turn catastrophic, lose control of one of the Houses of Congress.
These are the problems, but the Dog has an idea how you and he can address these problems in a positive way. It will not require a hierarchal structure, it will not require any allegiance to the current power structure, and it will take merely a moderate level of work from each of us, over a period of the next ten months.
"Something there is that doesn't love a Romanoff, that wants him down." (With apologies to Robert Frost.)
I'm starting to think that Andrew Romanoff is getting the Mike Miles treatment, in the Democratic leadership and media. It seems that he's been getting the royal brush-off, starting with the Senatorial appointment and then with the Senate and Governor races. Maybe Andrew wants to stick with the Senate race and has made that known quietly, but it's still kind of an eerie feeling.
I wish Obama and Democratic leaders would stay out of state intra-party races. Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have been trying to get Harold Ford, Jr. to stay out of the Senate race in NY (where appointed Kirsten Gillibrand is the incumbent, having been appointed to fill Hillary's seat). Now...I have absolutely no use for Ford. He seems too sleazy by at least a half. But he has the right to run, and the people of NY have the right to choose whomever they would prefer.
Oh...did I mention that I'm for Romanoff in the Senate race? I don't have a whole lot against Michael Bennett (he was pretty good in the health care reform brouhahas); my objection has to do with how he became a Senator.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I think that that's why I'm more or less out of active politics these days.
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