My Kingdom for a Backbone

I've been watching a parade of slapstick worthy of the Keystone Kops lately, but it's not on Vintage Movie Night - it's in Washington DC. Hapless doesn't even begin to describe it.

It might be the FISA cave-in in the Senate. It might be the Karl Rove impasse with the House Judiciary Committee. It might be the statements from Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and others in his government including his national security advisor that it?s time for a US troop withdrawal, or at least for a timetable for withdrawal to be set - about which the White House naysays and Congress remains silent. Or any number of other issues. Actually, there is no "might be" about it. These problems ARE all present. Only one thing is not here, and there's no "might be" there, either. There is no backbone.

There is NO backbone. And if there was ever a time for lots of it, we're there now. I'm thoroughly convinced that this explains the latest Rasmussen poll -- in which Congress has now fallen from 11 percent job approval to 9 percent. NINE percent. It's the first time in that survey's history that the number of voters giving Congress good or excellent reviews has cratered so deeply -- into single digits.

I'm so there. I'm invited to take polls online and on the phone fairly frequently, and my built-in wish to grade the Bush administration far more poorly than a now-Democratic controlled Congress (mainly because I've long considered the Bush administration worse than anything else) is no longer active. I can't give Congress A's or B's when I'm repeatedly convinced that they're earning F's. Even F's are sometimes too good. How far down the alphabet do I go? Certainly way down past even W, these days.

My kingdom for a backbone. Any backbone among the Dems. Any at all. At this point, I'm not proud. I'll take anything. This is the time they should be flexing their muscles like nobody's business and seizing the momentum. After all, we have a White House occupant with lower-than-low approval ratings - so dismal that Bush?s biggest fan and would-be heir, John McCain, shrivels from him in revulsion and goes virtually Cirque du Soleil in twisting his schedule in knots trying to avoid being in the same zip code Bush is in. So dismal that Republican stomachs are tied in knots wondering what they're going to do with the Toxic Texan at their upcoming convention - when almost nobody wants to admit they've even heard of the guy.

Furthermore, every poll that tracks whether Americans think we're on the right or wrong track now shows resounding, near record-breaking numbers leaning hard in the "wrong track" direction. The latest from AP/Ipsos, for example, finds a measly 17 percent of those responding think we're doing okay as a nation.

If EVER there was a time to show backbone, and buck the White House and all its apologists and excuse-makers and cover-up cronies, This Is It.

And yet, they won't.

Why? Are the Dems still that intimidated? Afraid of being lambasted as unpatriotic? Un-American? Soft on terror? Not supporting the troops? Won?t the opposition slam them for all of that ANYWAY, no matter what they do or how much they capitulate or otherwise try to make nice? Why not just go for it? What have they got to lose at this point? They can?t go much farther down into the sewer than nine percent approval.

Americans crave leadership. Leadership that will pull us off the wrong track and back on the correct path where we belong. We're longing for strength of character and conviction. Fearlessness. Guts. Whether the GOP juggernaut tries to swiftboat it or not. Voters never seemed to mind when George W. Bush repeatedly told them - "you may not agree with me, but you know where I stand" while campaigning for another four years in the Oval Office. So where do the Democrats stand? Firmly and courageously in defiance of all that's evil, criminal, and unconstitutional - all of which has been forced down our throats by Bush/Cheney and all their little Republican friends? Or are they still trying to go along to get along?

Curiously enough, I noted an item about Senator Patrick Leahy's cameo appearance in the new film "The Dark Knight." In the scene, Leahy appears next to the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. Leahy can be seen standing up to the villain with the macabre grimace on his face, and declaring "we're not intimidated by you thugs."

Well, I guess we found our backbone, alright. Up front and dead center against a cartoon villain in a summer blockbuster. It's there in a fictional confrontation on America's cinema screens when it should be playing in reality on CSPAN and every newscast of record, every day and night. It's scripted by Hollywood screenwriters, when it should be the easiest adlib that ever tumbled off a Democrat's tongue. We can work up a spine when it's playing pretend.

When will we start seeing Democratic backbone - for real?

Comments

[morninmist]

Our presumption Dem Nominee is suppose to be the new Dem leader.

He FAILED ---he had NO backbone!! He had the chance to SHOW he is a leader--but he only
showed he was willing to vote with the Bush cronies!!

"If EVER there was a time to show backbone, and buck the White House and all its apologists and excuse-makers and cover-up cronies, This Is It."

[kentuck]

Mary Lyon, aka calimary...

The Democrats have a difficult time taking "yes" for an answer. It ha been a slow digression to get where they are today. I fear it will take a while before they get back on a progressive track. The Republicans have dictated the agenda for many years, even when Clinton was President. The last Democratic Presdient with any backbone was Jimmy Carter and look what happened to him?

[11Bravo]

Nice take, Mary, and right on point. (And here's a little DU love for you as well.)

[kjdwyer]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've been screaming about this (as my friends will attest) for a long, long time. It's unfathomable to me what democrats are waiting for.

Most recently, in the face of the Rove refusal to testify. Jon Conyers is arguably toward the end of his career, as are Pelosi and others. WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR?????? Are they seriously thinking about their political futures? How long do you have to be in the game before you cast all that crap to the side and DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is it that LInda Sanchez, one of the most junior members of the House Judiciary Committee, is the only one publicly asking that Rove be put in jail? Forget no backbone, these fossils apparently have no bones at all. They're made of maleable mush. Play-do politicos.

Don't get me started on FISA. I just signed a petition to censure Dianne Feinstein for voting for it. Again, another fossil to whom I ask the question WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????????????????? I was nine when she became head of the Board of Supervisers in San Francisco. I'm now 50. That's over 40 years in politics. HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE TO BE IN THE GAME BEFORE YOU STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR OWN PERSONAL CAREER AND THINK ABOUT THE PRESERVATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gutless wonders, all of them
I am soooooooooooooooooooooo on the same page with you about all of this.

[ElkoJohn]

`
the reason there is no back-bone
is that the pols of both parties
(with few exceptions)
are controlled by
the big money,
the neocon mentality
and the powerful lobbies
and of course
uninformed, apathetic voters don't help matters much
`

[disgustedcitizen]

I am glad to see I am not alone in my disgust of our Democratic leadership. In 2006, I thought that at last we could start to take our country back and put a stop to the insanity that is the bush/republican agenda.
Alas, it was not so. The Democratic leadership is either cowards, or just as corrupt as the Repugs. And stupid or blind to boot. How can they miss when polls show them even lower then bush that the American people are NOT happy with they way they are "leading". How can they not see that the American people want the occupation of Iraq to stop, we want our Constitutional right restored, we want our shores really protected and we want the bush/cheney administration at LEAST investigated if not impeached and imprisoned.
Instead, we have the Democrats "laying low" trying to consolidate power so they can win a few more seats in the 2008 election, when if they at least tried to fight the Republicans and bush, they could win a hell of a lot more seats.

I for one wish we could keep a couple of the good ones, like Waxman, Kennedy, Leahy, Sanders (I), Kucinish and a couple of others, and get rid of the rest of the incumbents and start over with people that understand that they work for the American people, not the corporations and special interest lobbyists.

Oh, well, just wishing, thanks for letting me vent... See you in November.

[Breakwind]

Face it: Dems are fair-weather activists. They are so afraid of losing that they will bend over more adroitly than a Chinese gymnist rather than make a fuss. You know it's true, and so do I.

[Lemeritus]

"Dems are fair-weather activists."

And those who aren't are labelled far-left fringe lunatics.

[nancytheragingliberal]

"When will we start seeing Democratic backbone - for real?" To answer your question, not in our lifetimes. In the "olden Days", there was never any situation too large or too small, when the Dems would come roaring out of their cages, loaded for bear. Now, the timid, cowardly dems (lover case intended), dither, collecting their paychecks and major benefits, compliments of the poor taxpayers, and doing absolutely nothing. They cave in at every turn, slowly, but surely, eroding our constitutional rights. Yes, Americans long for strong leadership, but, so far, there is no there there.

[Lemeritus]

"Curiously enough, I noted an item about Senator Patrick Leahy's cameo appearance in the new film 'The Dark Knight.' Leahy can be seen standing up to the villain with the macabre grimace on his face, and declaring 'we're not intimidated by you thugs.' Well, I guess we found our backbone, alright. Up front and dead center against a cartoon villain in a summer blockbuster."

Happy to report that Senator Leahy kept his backbone through the FISA vote. Not so 69 other Senators (including Senator Obama and 20 others Democrats) but not counting 3 Senators who did not bother to vote (including Senator McCain, but then....). Previously, in the House, 293 Representatives, including 105 Democrats, spanked the bill on the butt and sent it squalling to the Senate.

I don't think we're talking anymore about lack of principle. I thnk we're talking about professional politicians who go along to get along. To paraphrase Mae West: "Goodness has nothing to do with it." Approval ratings be damned with a wad of lobbyist money in one hand, a few years between elections, and no need to worry about term limits. The name of the game is keeping the straw in the milk shake and sucking.

[1HippieChick]

Congrats, calimary! (And MORE love from Democratic Underground!)