Rahm, Are You #*%@!#* Kidding Me?

Ignore me if you want. After all, Van Jones has been an inspiration to me, I'm antiwar, pro-single-payer, pro-impeachment, a long-time member of the Jackson/Kucinich wing of the Democratic Party. I know I'm easy to dismiss. But seriously, dude--since when do you deal with right-wing wolves by feeding them sacrificial lambs?
I thought you were the tough guy. I thought you sneered at critics, laughed in the face of danger, sent dead fish to your enemies.
I gotta say, lately you've been looking pretty weak. The loony wing of the Republican Party is scaring you and your homies to death by sending some screamers to a few town halls to spout nonsensical non sequiturs in loud voices. For crying out loud, you got stared down and outmaneuvered all summer by Chuck Grassley, of all people!
Plus your Blue Dog buddies and the so-called "centrist" Senators are rolling you on health care, whining endlessly, contradicting themselves every other day, eviscerating Ted Kennedy's life work and the President's plan--the plan that America voted for last fall! The pitiful thing is, they're sinking the Democratic Party boat despite the fact that it's their "swing district" political buddies clinging to the electoral lifejackets, not the progressive members. Did they learn nothing from what happened to your crowd back in '94--who lost their seats when too many loyal Democrats stayed home and the Gingrich counter-revolution rolled through rural America? Seems to me there were a lot of swing DLC Dems that were swamped by the right-wing tides after NAFTA passed and health care failed (can you say "Senator" Jim Cooper? or "Senator" Dave McCurdy? Not.)
And what's this bad new habit you guys have validated, where conservative Senators negotiate with themselves in secret, leaving the bulk of the Democrats on the sidelines, while they whittle down what could have been a winning Medicare-for-anyone option to a piece of unidentifiable sludge that not even your allies can properly describe, define, or defend. Now there are leaks that you're going to triangulate even that piece of sludge away tonight--I sure hope not. Do you play poker that badly? Do you announce how much you can afford to raise before your opponents have even put in their antes?
And for what? To prove to David Broder and Fred Hiatt that you guys are not "owned" by progressives. I would have thought that escalating a stupid, illegal, unwinnable war in Afghanistan would have already taken care of that.
Now you guys have thrown Van Jones under the back of the bus, at midnight on Saturday on a holiday weekend?! Is that how you build team spirit? Is that how you fire up the progressive base to protect your flank? Surely you, Rahm, cannot really think that offering up Van as a human sacrifice will convince the right-wing fanatics to stop...Yeah, that's just how right-wing vampires work...once they get a taste of progressive blood, they just calm right down and go away...Just like they did when your previous boss callously abandoned Lani Guinier to that generation of vampires...did they fly back to their caves then?
Look, I know you don't care what I think ideologically. I know I'm part of the "untouchables," the left wing of the party that's supposed to provide millions of votes at election time and then just shut up for two more years. (You know, the part of the party your current boss grew up in politically.) And yeah, because Van Jones is a friend of mine, I'm extra offended that you guys are letting that race-baiting hater Glenn Beck do a victory dance on Van's head.
But at least you should care what this episode says about you, and your team. Kicking Van Jones to the curb just because Glenn Beck is yapping at your heels tells progressives that you guys are weak, that you won't have our backs even when we have yours (as Van did). What should scare you more is that this episode also blares "WEAKNESS" to the right-wing wolf pack. It says your only defense for lies and slander and partisan hyperbole is caving in, human sacrifice, jettisoning your left flank.
Guess what? That makes our side discouraged and their side fired up...Duh...
To paraphrase a famous politico, it would be a shame to waste this crisis. So how about tonight you guys change course? Would it help if I sent you a dead fish?
If your boss--whom I like--gets up there tonight, speaks truth to cowards, and draws a serious line in the sand on health care, you can begin to turn this listing ship around.
Go ahead, get him to say the magic words: "Choice of Medicare for Anyone."
He'll kick ass. The crowd will go wild. The tide will turn.
But he cannot show weakness--he's got to show some fire, some grit, some pushback. He's got to show he's willing to fight for real change we can believe in--that he means it...
Partly because it's the right thing for the country. Partly because we can't afford more lost years of inhumane policy in Washington. Partly because it's what so many people voted for last November. And partly because your opponents have concluded--erroneously, I hope--that he's too weak to do so. That you're too weak to stand up for anything.
Counterpunch tonight, Rahm. Surprise everybody. Do it for the 47 million Americans without health care. Do it for President Obama, so he can get his mojo back. Hell, do it for Van...you owe him one...

(hat tip to Alice for this one)

Comments

[leah32]

Rahm works for the President. Is it too controversial to say that here?

[Aaror]

If Democrats could grow a spine this nation would be a lot more like what the majority of Americans want. Ironically, we are a "center right," nation with progressive beliefs. If we had a vote on every progressive vs conservitive position the public would vote progressive on everything but Gay Marriage, and that will change in 2-4 years when enough stuck up old folks die and are replaced by open minded Gen Y voters.
Republicans are motivated (and scared) because they know that we would be like Europe if they allowed the true opinions of Americans to rule. So they shout and bluster and use the noise machine, and for some reason the left lets them. Maybe it is just that the right wing media will only interview timid left wing pundits, not our aggressive grass roots.

[susants]

Steve Hildebrand and Steve Cobble said it all for me and, in truth, for most progressives.
Obama (Emanuel? who is boss???) jettisoned the far left, the left, progressives, liberals, Classic liberals from Chicago like me (who elected him to the Senate and paved the way for the White House), etc.
Polls show the young, centrists and independents have deserted Obama (Emanuel), because they feel they were lied to. Surprise!
Who is left? The Blue Dog Dems wanted Hillary and to get reelected; they lost on her and probably won't be reelected with the wave of GOP victories in 2010.
The Repulicans want some wingnut (any wingnut will do).
So who does Obama have left to jettison?
As to the public option, it is either that or he can just forget 2012 (and Dem elections in 2010) as well as their precious Afghan war.
These slickers are not fooling everyone anymore.

[wildedge]

Excellent article - Obama will never placate the white supremacist right; he will never placate any "wha' happened to my power?!" Republicans. He thus cannot hold the center by co-opting fee-0market economics and go-slow reformist gestures, the way Clinton did. He needs to legitimate progressive voice, and he needs progressive voters - he abandon's them and the center is lost.

[MalleusMaleficarum]

Tonight, President Barack Obama is taking the first part of his historic IQ test. The voters who elected him will be watching with their eyes peeled. Obama will either pass or fail. Obama will either announce his plan to veto any bill that does not contain a vigorous public option affordable and open to every American, employed or unemployed, rich or poor, or -- he will take a dive for the health insurance industry, the medical corporations and big pharma. Soon, Obama will take another IQ test -- in his response to McChrystal's Vietnamesque demand for more troops for Afghanistan. And, very soon after that one, Obama will take a third part of his IQ test when he addresses the UN where he will be graded pass or fail on his plan to pacify the Middle East from Gaza to Afghanistan. At the end of this month, Obama will either be a historic president, or history. The progressive base is yearning, and 2012 is just around the corner. I am hoping Obama passes all the parts of his test. He certainly has the intellectual ability to do so. But, as Steve Cobble has just pointed out so saliently above, serious questions are flying about Obama's will and the political competence of his top staff. Rahm Emanuel and Hillary Clinton have a lot to answer for, and they should be on the firing line if Obama flunks these tests -- and his numbers tank.

[TremoluxMan]

I don't we'll see going all in. All I think we'll see is folding. Let the minority rule the discussion, set the agenda, and frame the legislation. Change we can believe in. Mmm-okay.

[obama4america]

Genius it's Democrats (Blue Dogs) who've held up reform, not the GOP.

[billyboil]

don't hold your breath....­..........­...sadly the Dems just aint got it. I want my money back.

[pontesisto]

Now is the time to make our voices heard...If you would like to help pressure Congress to pass single payer health care reform please join our voting bloc at:
http://www.votingbloc.org/Health_Bloc.php