Today’s headlines — “Democrats Beat Quick Retreat on Call to Censure President“; “Feingold Draws Little Support for Censure“; “Democratic leaders shy away from censure plan” — tell the familiar story of one brave Dem sticking his neck out — for truth, justice, and the American Way — followed by the rest of the party running for the bomb shelters.
ReddHedd at firedoglake (which is having technical problems today, but it’s on this archive page somewhere) quoted this quote from Donna Brazile in today’s Roll Call (Subscription required):
The message from the left-leaning blogosphere is clear: Democrats should understand the real issue. The point is not censure or impeachment; it is Congress’s lack of oversight and its failure to hold anyone accountable for major mistakes or missteps. And especially, it’s about clearly misleading the American public. From faulty pre-war intelligence to the negligent response to Hurricane Katrina and the unjustified cost for Medicare prescription drug benefits, there has been no meaningful oversight by the GOP-controlled Congress. It is doubtful whether they would be willing to hear evidence against the president. While the Feingold resolution is not going anywhere given the full Republican control of Washington, D.C., a change in leadership in the fall would make this a ripe item for conversation and action in 2007 and beyond…. Oversight is a fundamental responsibility of Congress, which until the Republicans took over was a coequal branch of government. It’s long past time for the Republican Congress — and in particular the House and Senate Intelligence committees — to stop protecting the administration and start doing more to protect the American people. The 2006 political campaign season, which is under way across America, will truly come down to a test of wills. If my party’s leaders, whom I admire and respect, cannot figure out three things this electoral season that the GOP will use as wedge issues to distract and divide — Iraq, the war on terror and national security, and cultural issues like abortion and same-sex marriage — then my party finally will have earned its minority status.
A few days ago a commenter to Mahablog said, in effect, that reading about the awfulness of the Bush Administration is entertaining, but when are you going to do something to get rid of him? Well, here’s something we can do. We can support Russ Feingold by sending him our thanks. We can let our Democratic senators know we expect them to support Russ Feingold. We can send our senators the Donna Brazile quote by fax and email and carrier pigeon. We can promise them we have long memories.
And while you’re at it, help send Joe Lieberman into retirement and send a campaign contribution to Ned Lamont.
Maha,
The weenie stand is quite appropriate. I cannot believe the democrats in the senate continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Pass the patriot act (without reading it), vote for the Iraq war, minimal opposition to two right wing supreme court judges (not to mention the many circuit courts), financing of war off budget (emergency supplementals), pass the patriot act again, and now they can’t muster the courage to tell the president he did something wrong. Bush and the repubs are bullies and the senate democrats are a bunch of whining pussies. Do they read the polls? This president is ripe for a good punch in the face (politically) and the democrats are still afraid of the terror card. If they are unwilling to stand up and fight when in the minority why should we believe they would fight if they were the majority party? Anyway I thought it was humorous that Dead Eye Dick (at a republican fund raiser) said Feingold was playing “politics”, ironic isn’t it ?
As weenies, they stand alone. They don’t need a toasted or warmed bun to hide their cowadise.
I guess the Dems are getting smacked around by George Clooney, as well. Ouch.
Does George have political aspirations? He’s smart, feisty, and of course not the ugliest guy in the world. Would Sen. Clooney be worse than Sen. Feinstein? I know Gov. Clooney of California would be better than the big lummox they’ve got now.
Perhaps I should go home and take a cold shower. Then I might see the folly of this line of thinking??
I just don’t understand these dems. Even the weenie claim rings a little false to me … I mean, seriously, where is the political downside in supporting this censure?? It’s not anything that revolutionary … basically just a statement that the Senate Does Not Approve, And Is Really Very Annoyed Now … and since it won’t pass because of the repubs, all it REALLY is saying is that the Democrats in the Senate Do Not Approve. What in hell is wrong with pointing out you officially don’t approve of a president that you really and truly don’t approve of??
I mean, the issue is really very simple: the president did BLATANTLY and very very CLEARLY break the law. There can be absolutely no doubt about that. Furthermore, the president’s approval rating is at the worst it’s ever been, and the approval rating of republicans in general afre very very low …
It would seem to be the absolute perfect time to go out a few inches on a very broad limb and do a little official Not Approving … if not now, then when??? Do they have to wait until Bush actually has himself declared Emporer Bushius I, and starts systematically liquidating political enemies, before they might say something mildly critical in public?? Or maybe if he actually goes on national television and starts killing kittens with a big spiky hammer, cackling evilly while proclaiming in a loud voice “I’M DELIBERATELY DOING AN ILLEGAL ACT AND YOU CAN DO NOTHING TO STOP ME!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!”, while the Supreme Court is standing nearby, on camera, saying in unison “Yes, we agree, this is really very, very illegal. Somebody should definitely stop this, in Our Most Esteemed Opinion.” while nearby, representatives of all major polling firms are saying, again in unison, “99.9999999% of all voters in the US say that democrats should most definitely come out against presidential kitten killing, all agreeing with the statement ‘It would be appropriate for the Democrats in Congress to say in public that they disapprove of smashing little furry kitten heads with a presidential big spiky hammer'” ….. would all that have to happen for the democrats to voice some actual objections to presidential behavior?
Gah … I just don’t understand this, not one bit.
Thanks for the call to action, Maha.
Now, as to why the Dems couldn’t denounce the present administration’s wrongdoings if they jumped out and bit them on the nose—it’s that solid mass (30-40-45%??) of voters who would vote for a deck chair if it was “patriotic”, anti-abortion, “pro-family”, anti-gay, anti-“big government”, pro-gun, etc. etc.
The Dems are always running scared. Either they shy away from confrontation or sell out their mothers (Hillary Clinton reaching out to the “pro-lifers”: pass the barf bag). Are these (mostly) straight, white men ready to really stand up and be counted? I think not, though I am not advocating giving up…not by a long shot!
Try thinking about how ‘sensible’ it would be if Democrat and Republican beltway teams who once-upon-a-time competed with each other…..now secretly cooperate with each other. As long as power wielders on both sides of the aisle get to game the system on behalf of their campaign contributors, there’s ultimate security and perks in the status quo. Money buys elections.
IMHO, I think Russ Feingold has never joined this across-the-aisle cooperative cabal……..those we think of as weenies for not taking a stand with Feingold are repug-lites because they’ve replaced their integrity with some of that stuff you can’t take with you when you die.
Firedoglake looks to be working well in its new digs at:
http://firedoglake.com
Redd and Jane rock.
maha, you’re right about the weenies. CALL YOUR SENATORS. Let them know that if the Dems hang together on this, they’ll be able to hang the GOP nay votes around their necks like an albatross come November.
Also, send a message by giving till it hurts at:
http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/
Cheers!
This is an insult to weenies everywhere. Weenies show up for Fourth of July picnics and are greeted by hungry kids. Weenies are little Patriots stuffed in weenie skins,. I don’t know what the hell the Dems are.
And could we please always include in any laundry list of Congressional failures at oversight, the $1 billion per week cost of the “War” in Iraq.
I still think it’s some sort of twisted strategy to let things get so bad in our country that the choice will be obvious this november. Still, a pretty weenie type of strategy if that’s what it is.
Yesterday I sent a letter of thanks and apprieciation to Senator Feingold. I felt hurt that his courage and devotion to America’s principles was so shamelessly dismissed by a bunch of self serving political hacks.
Please write his office and express your support for his effort. It’s what we need to do to restore America…Nobody is above the law!
I signed Moveon.org’s petition to be sent to my Senators and Congressman.
I will call them tomorrow as well.
Cocktail weenie is more like it as they are not even big enough for a regular size weenie. Also, they are “pork” cocktail weenies.
They are probably hesitating because a President has not been censured by the Senate since Andrew Jackson. The Senate’s strongest action is to censure. Only the House of Rep’s can start impeach proceedings.
I “frankly” (no weenie) think “Joe Gotta Go”!
I’ve maintained for some time now that bloggers do represent Americans. I further suggest blog commentors do too. Our “radical” ideas such as health care for all, jobs, pensions, equality, freedom are things the people want.
That said, look around at the blogs today. EVERYONE is screaming for the Dems to get some balls and back Feingold. And to start acting like an opposition party.
I would hate to face re-election at home with a track record like most Dems have. They’re afraid of losing support at home? Wise up. Americans don’t appreciate spineless cowards.
The democrats are afraid they’ll be perceived as been on the wrong side of public opinion. They’re picturing the Republican mid term campaign commercials accusing them of supporting the terrorists. It will probably take an economic calamity, a Kratina 2 or another terrorist attack in which it is clear once again that Republican policies have worsened the outcome before people finally wake up. The Democrats are cowards and deserve a long sojourn in the wilderness. Maha, I’d like to write to them and tell them to get off their duffs and do something but I’m afraid they might start a whispering campaign encouraging Cheney to invade Canada next for sticking our nose in their business. If Bush gets away with his warrantless wiretapping as it now appears he likely will, it makes you wonder which law boy wonder will feel empowered to break next? William Arkin had a commentary in WAPO on March 7 in which he made the following bold statement: “, I for one don’t believe that the NSA program …..hides some Nixonian-like abuse targeted on Americans. I particularly reject the 1960’s paradigm that the administration is using NSA to collect a new “enemies list.” The link is below (scroll down to his March 7 entry). Arkin did not say how he knew this, or on what basis he makes that claim. As someone on the outside of your country looking in my response to that is BULLSHIT! How can he be so sure that this administration isn’t abusing these powers especially given the fact that the White House is been run by one of the more malevolent characters (Rove) on the American political scene in either this or the last century.
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/
Breaking News — Have you heard already?
In an attempt to thwart the spread of Bird Flu,
George W. Bush has bombed the Canary Islands.
Richard Cohen in WaPo has a good column (link below) about how little the Republicans are “distressed” by the endless string of administration blunders. Then, just to prove he’s not a liberal partisan hack, he jumps all over the Democrats. I winced, but he spoke the truth. If people like Hillary and Obama can’t capitalize on the tanked Republican poll numbers, who in hell can? Look at the Democrats ducking questions and running around like chickens with their heads cut off after Finegold called for censure. What a joke.
Things don’t look good. But there’s an old witch here on the island of Ischia who says she’s seeing clear signs that after the upcoming full moon and spring equinox, some really good things will be happening in the world. Just watch, she says. Gawd, I hope she’s right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301484.html
Cohen is brilliant at almost writing a good column but blowing it, and he did it again. He doesn’t bash the Dems for not standing up to the Republicans; he bashes them for “an innocuous port deal that lent itself to demagogic mischief. This reprehensible exercise in Arab-bashing was led by New York’s two senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton …” Huh? Like Republican Senators weren’t on the front lines of shutting the port deal down, too?
This morning’s NYT editorial, “A Stumble a Day”……about incompentency in the Bush administration…..has a great point to make about Bush team illegal behavior and a Congress that [except for Feingold] aids and abets that illegality:
“If the current Congress had been called on to intervene in the case of Mr. Allen, it would probably have tried to legalize shoplifting.”
I have said it before, and will probably say it again :
We have to assume that “Vichy Democrats” include people being paid off by Karl Rove (but, probably quite indirectly). In other words, they are what in the Cold War days would have been called agents of influence. Most are probably being blackmailed at this point (that is the typical AOI life cycle – start out getting paid “in appreciation for your help” or for some other bullshit reason, then morph to being totally ruled by your paymaster, who after all has the goods on your treason).
Who might these people be ? I don’t know, but you can bet that they are against the Censure resolution.
A reasonable response would therefore be to refuse to give money or support to anyone who votes against Censure.
3/15/05-Weenie Update
Wow two senators have thus far signed on to Feingolds measure, Harkin, and Boxer. Now that’s progress. When this story broke (the president’s violation of our 4th amendment rights) a couple months ago all the democrats were tripping over themselves to call for an investigation? Also did you all notice Dead eye Dick’s statement that “the American people are with the president on this one”? I wonder where he got this idea. Maybe from a Poll? Perhaps the same poll that says he and his subordinate Bush are deep down in the shitter. Brilliant. All the billions of dollars that our media has at its disposal and none of them seem to point out the simplest of ironies.
I quess the billions of dollars explains it all. I quess I’m no better at pointing out simple ironies than the press. I had better keep my day job!
It’s time we face an unpleasant fact.
By and large, our national Democrats have not taken on President Bush and his minions because they agree with them. In their fuzzy little hearts, they really are GOP Lite.
The number of national Democrats that took to the tall grass trying to hide from Sen. Feingold’s censure resolution tells the story. They cannot even make themselves say “President Bush broke the law”, even after the example the GOP gave us with President Clinton. Even with all polling showing that traditional Democratic issues win with the voters, these people cannot bring themselves to support those issues.
Because they don’t believe in them.