The Democrats Could Learn A Lot From Larry Craig's Balls
As we all know, Senator Larry Craig is an anti-gay, right-wing zealot and fantastically gifted hypocrite who was arrested while allegedly attempting to solicit gay sex in an airport men's room; he was booked on charges and nationally disgraced.
Despite all of that, Senator Craig has brazenly defied his party and has returned to the senate to help filibuster and obstruct every important piece of legislation the Democrats introduce.
Meanwhile, the Democrats, who we specifically elected to end the occupation of Iraq and, to a lesser extent, check the power of the president, allowed the Republicans to filibuster, 1) an amendment that would've restored habeas corpus, one of our most cherished constitutional rights; and 2) an amendment that would've supported the troops by giving them more family time between tours.
Prior to this embarrassing week of events on the Hill, the Democratic majority has acquiesced on war funding and have fallen over themselves backpedaling as fast as their trembling legs could carry them in the face of everything President Loser and the Republicans have farted in their general direction.
It's clear that the Democrats could learn a lot from Senator Craig's comparatively mighty balls.
(And I hasten to note that there is a dozen or so senate Democrats -- Senators Webb, Dodd, Leahy, Feingold, etc... -- who are most definitely not indicative of their party's recent castrata status.)
Unlike the era prior to the 2006 midterms, suddenly 51 votes -- or 56 votes -- aren't good enough. Somehow, the Democrats have allowed the White House and GOP to obstruct so vigorously that attaining 60 senate votes is the only way to bring a piece of legislation to a vote in the first place. 60 votes, plus or minus a Lieberman. But other than in the blogosphere, we're not hearing protests of obstructionism. We're not hearing vocal demands all across the media spectrum for an up-or-down-vote. Instead we get the idling hum of Senator Reid's voice and a distraction from MoveOn, bless them.
And the president, in his special needs press conference* this week, continued to bully the Democrats as if he's still performing his Vincent Chase from Entourage strut in that flight suit (one of the early indications of the president's move towards, as Keith Olbermann called it Thursday night, a military junta) waving his giant stuffed cod piece with more vigor than Britney's saddlebags at the VMAs.
There is no reason whatsoever why the Democrats need to even acknowledge the existence of the president and his childish disciples in Congress. "Who's that talking? Cornyn? 'The hell's a Cornyn?" After all, the American people want everything the Democrats say they stand for: a rapid end to the war, a restoration of the Constitution, universal health care, clean energy, less outsourcing, and all the rest.
So why, given the choice, do the Democrats, at the expense of their voters, continue to flinch when confronted by the unpopular and widely disgraced Republican Party?
It's because they're locked into bad habits established prior to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I call it the Dreaded Lieberman-Gephardt-Stockholm Syndrome.
They somehow continue to believe that if they fall too far to the left -- if they take too bold of a fuck you posture -- Karl Rove and Roger Ailes will cold cock them with a rubber bullet -- a massive legal (and illegal) propaganda campaign labeling them as "with the terrorists" or "too French" or whatever lowest common denominator bullshit they yank from their white asses in order to jazz up their ignoramus base.
Restore habeas rights? With the terrorists! Give the troops more time off? The Democrats hate the troops!
This week, for instance, the Democrats should've carpet bombed the media with quotes including the phrase "obstructionist Republicans". The big ticket amendments this week should've been unofficially nicknamed "The Military Families Amendment" or the "Save The Constitution Amendment".
This way, they could saturate the media with quotes like, "Why is Senator McCain against saving the Constitution?" or, "Why is Republican Senator Lieberman against military families?" For fuck's sake, I at least hope the DNC is saving some of the floor debate video for next year. An entire campaign's worth of TV buys could be produced from yesterday's White House and senate floor performances.
But instead of a bold and aggressive Democratic Party empowered by the support of legions of Americans as well as a disgraced and unpopular GOP, we get this bungled and botched week of wet-bread politics. I know we're not supposed to eat our own, but screw that. The Democrats embarrassed, disappointed and pissed me off this week. Have I made myself clear on that yet?
And if that wasn't bad enough, on the campaign front, we have a Democratic presidential frontrunner who released a health care plan this week that's nothing more than a veiled GOP health care plan -- with an extra step or two between your tax dollars and gigantically profitable insurance companies. I'm sure if you asked a policy staffer (in private) why the plan is so fucking awful, they might admit to something like, This is a plan that will actually pass (because of lobbyist support and more bipartisan votes).
It's a plan that smacks of lobbyists and preemptively bipartisan cooperation, when, in fact, Americans are starved for something a thousand times more courageous.
Bill Maher told Wolf Blitzer this week that Senator Craig might bring the whole party down with him. I wish that were true. The truth is that Senator Craig only reinforces the reasons why the Republicans won the week and why the Democrats and, in turn, the American people lost.
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* President Bush in Thursday's press conference: "I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas." First, huh what? Second, Mandela is still alive.
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Help save John From Cincinnati here. Bill Jacks would do the same for you, ya' mope.
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Why are the Dems being so polite to the asshole Republicans? They (the Repubs) have no intention of cooperating in a bipartisan way. They have their marching orders from Prez Cheney -- no retreat, no surrender -- so I don't know why Reid & Pelosi think things are going to change -- they're not.
I hate to admit it, but I think Pat Buchanan nailed it the other day when he said that the Dems will fail on their attempts to end the war in Iraq because they don't have the courage of their convictions.
Democrats are not cowards, they're criminals. The sad part is that many kool-aid drinkers still believe that 'we don't have 67 votes' LIE.
We don't need a Third Party in America, we need a SECOND.
Bob, you are so right!!! I think the Democrats think that they don't need to do anything, that 2008 is theirs for the taking. We need a 3rd party so that we, the people, can have some representation. The Democratic party and the republican party represent the same special interest groups, they take money from the same people, that is why the Democrats won't do anything. Same old, same old... with either party.
These Democrats are all cowards. No balls!! Even with a majority of Americans supporting that exact legislation, to cut the war funding.
McCain is voting against the troops by denying them a rotation back home equal to the time they spend overseas in a Combat Zone. It is a simple idea that average people can grasp, including the rank and file Republicans. Another simple but powerful idea that should be hammered home to the Republicans is that by opposing all abortion they are supporting Rapists and those who committ incest. Take those two ideas, about the troops and the rapists and saturate the media in the states below the Mason Dixon line. That would be a good use of all the money Move On . Org made from their unfortuneate slander of Petraeus.
General Strike! Tuesday, November 6, 2007!
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Right on the money, Bob, and thanks.
This country is waiting, waiting and waiting for the Democrats to show courage and a willingness to confront Bush. If it doesn't happen soon, the edge will be lost. The Dems either need to grow balls or pack suitcases- the goodwill the party has from the election is fading very fast.
I feel like someone should pimp-slap the bunch of 'em back into sense.
As an Idahoan, I think Craig's appearance in the Senate came more from his arrogance and delusion than his balls, though. The man has the Republican Party as the only pillar holding up his life, and showing up may have been his wack way of trying to get back in the Repub leaders' good graces again. It probably won't work, but the Repubs appreciate big balls. I wish the majority party did, too.
"This week, for instance, the Democrats should've carpet bombed the media with quotes including the phrase "obstructionist Republicans". The big ticket amendments this week should've been unofficially nicknamed "The Military Families Amendment" or the "Save The Constitution Amendment". "
While this is exactly what NEEDED to happen, I wonder whether it's reasonable to expect that it COULD have happened, given the corporate-owned, neocon controlled MSM. It's rather difficult to carpet bomb media that will simply refuse to give voice to your message.
Progressives still do not understand the absolute necessity of having a 24/7 TV network to "inform/manipulate" the masses. FAUX News has been, for twenty years, a perfect and hugely effective vehicle for brainwashing the "average joe" who has, at most, fifteen minutes a day to become "informed" re the issues of the day. Like it or not, most people don't have the time or the inclination to get beyond the :talking points" level.
Where is all the progressive money? Why is there still no progressive TV network? It would be precisely on such a network that the message framed above could have been blasted and hammered away, every hour, all day, ad nauseam, and then some.
good points here is a little economic explanation
Cons can fund GOP media because they know that spending money in the media is an investment
for instance, by repealing the estate tax, the cons saved Dupont heirs between 400-600 million $ during the course of the Bush presidency.
If billionaires know they will get 4 to six times their investment back, why not drop 100 million to promote con talkers in the media
Bob,
Great article. My question is about the 2008 elections. If we have a democratic majority in both houses, is there anything the public can do to remove the current leaders without use of a popular election? Palosi and Reid just aren't up to speed for the new democratic party. They seem stuck in the age of civility and don't have a hard grasp on the scorched earth war machine used by Republicons in the conservative (MSM) media.
Foul mouthed, politically inept, and a whiner ($5 fine). I hate losing too. But I have never been a sore one. At least not since I was 12....
Because I am not republican I will not vote republican, but I tell you what. The next time local elections come up I will vote out any democrat not worthy to be in office and that appears to be the whole lot of them. They make me sick with their spineless ways, and I have begun to think Nancy Pelosi, who came in like a lioness is now a toothless old hag ancient lioness who needs to go sit in some garden with her grand cubs. I simply cant believe how the republicans have handed themsleves to the dems on a platter with their lying, thieving, whore mongering, wide stance stall sluttishness, and the dems have caved in on every note. Karl, Chuckie Doll Rove has put a self fulfilling curse on these fools and they are going full tilt. They had the backing of all the people, republicans and democrats alike, and they blew it. Please, if you are a democrat, I urge you to look at other choices where you live come the next election cycle, look for someone young and strong and not willing to bow to the republicans. Someone who knows that if he does what we elect him to do we will reward him with re elections. This current crop of fools has to go, from Pelosi on down.
Bob,
What we are looking at here is the dems continuing to play a "prevent" defense. They believe the 2008 election is in the bag and they just don't want to give up the bomb.
Why do they think the election is in the bag? The Republicans know every trick in the book and the Democrats don't even know there is a book. The the Democrats let the Republicans maneuver this move there's no stopping them.
In the last Senate race I hesitated before voting Green. The Democrat won, but so what, he voted with the Republicans. Next time I'm going Green again.
The Democrats keep saying they can't do anything because they don't have 60 votes. It looks like they don't even have 49 votes they can count on.
It's SO hard to get diverted from HATING Republicans right down to the gaps in the atoms that comprise my body, to have to lash out at Democrats too.
It's f*ckin exhausting.
If the Democrats don't start doing something which SEEMS like they sorta kinda want to end the War, I'll just need to say f*ck it politicall
the democrats are chicken and shameful cowards...
Bob, I couldn't agree with you more. This week of shame and debacle by the Democrats has finally pushed me over the edge. I have completely lost all confidence in the Democratic leadership. It is time to replace both Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. I sent them both an email to let them know that I no longer support their leadership. Harry Reid is the epitome of a weak politician, and Nancy Pelosi turned out to be entirely ineffective. If anyone agrees with me, contact your senators and representatives and insist that they elect new leaders. There is too much at stake here to continue to tolerate so much failure and lack of vision. We need strong leaders who have the courage to put the republicans in their place and move the country forward.
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