Surfk9

Bipartisanship sucks

Remember, Republicans think bipartisanship is date rape.

What Atrios said:

 I actually hope every Republican votes against the stimulus package, and I hope that instead of trying to please them the Obama team comes up with what they think the right package will be. The Republicans should lay out a competing vision, which won't pass because they aren't in charge. Then, 2 and 4 years from now voters can judge the results and if they aren't pretty they'll know who to blame and decide that the competing vision would have been a better one.

With bipartisanship you'll not only get a compromise that sucks, when it's time to throw the bums out no one will be quite sure which party should be blamed. Then what new candidates do is just run against some generic "Washington."

Democrats have the presidency and big majorities. Instead of hiding behind the spread-the-blame-around tactic, they should announce their vision and run with it.

Leon Panetta to CIA

So, Obama picked Panetta to be DCIA.  I have always liked Leon back to the days when he was my Congressman. He apparently is resolutely anti-torture and domestic spying which is great in my book.  DiFi is pissed because she was not notified in advance. I  suspect that her dislike of the appointment is more due to her wanting someone who has been personally compromised in this regard as she has been. Leon is an able administrator and certainly has a history of performing well under pressure as he did as Clinton's Chief of Staff during the Whitewater days.

Good on you Barack.

Update:  As usual, go read Digby.

Thoughts on the primary

With St John annointed as the Republican nominee and Clinton and Obama preparing for the endgame of their nomination struggle, I offer some thoughts. After the California primary, I made a crack about Obamaton's to SurfSweetie. In her usual wise fashion, she corrected me saying that in a short time we are going to all have to gather together to defeat the Republican nominee, and that we should keep that thought foremost in our minds during the primaries. I cannot say that I agreed with her at the time, the Obama crowd just seemed so over the top that it screamed for derision (Caveat here, I am an Edwards supporter and neither Obama and Clinton are progressive enough for me but I will support both with money and work and I will vote for either).

Once again she was right. Over the last few weeks, I have noticed an increasing amount of vitriol directed at each other by both camps. In my opinion, more from the Obama side, but kicked up on both sides  nonetheless. We have six weeks before the next primary.  The party needs to put pressure on both camps to chill. They need to spend their time attacking McCain/Bush.  The candidates need to tell their supporters to chill.  The need is too great to squander by destroying our eventual candidate. Now I am not saying that either should get out of the race.  In fact, I believe that having the Primary go into June is a good thing for the party.  The press focus on the horse-race and all of the oxygen that it will suck out of McCains impoverished campaign, is a good thing. Some argue that having the candidates duke it out until June will hurt their chances, I couldn't disagree more.  The primary is the anvil upon which the spine of the general campaign is forged. and what a spine they will need. Digby notes that:

It remains my opinion that the Democrats will win this election handily. National security is no longer the most salient political issue (the Cry Wolf syndrome may have finally kicked in) and the economy is going into crisis mode. Bush and the social conservatives went too far and have been (temporarily) discredited. I do not feel that we are in any great danger of losing. (My biggest concerns are what is going to happen once we win it, not whether we will win it.)

That's not to say that the Republicans aren't going to wage a fight. They are likely to wage a truly nasty one, since they know they aren't likely to win and so have nothing to lose. John McCain will never run for president again --- he might as well go out in a blaze of glory doing as much damage to the new Democratic president as he can. (It's how they win by losing --- create so much noise and dissonance that the Democrat can't govern.)

The nominee will need to be a street fighter.  They will need to kick serious tail ass on Republicans, and within their caucus. We don't need some polite guy to allow the Republicans to 1) steal the election like in 2000 or 2004 or 2) to allow the remaining Republicans in Congress to prevent the changes that our nation needs to grow and prosper.

Your candidate sucks

I agree with Atrios

Why I don't Post

The 2006 elections left me excited and ecstatic.  Then Pelosi announced impeachment was off the table. My enthusiasm and my posts went south from there.  I spent so much time and emotions on this that I think the sense of disappointment is much more profound. Between the Iraq War funding and every other capitulation that the spineless Democratic Caucus in Congress has obediently used to display it's complicity with the Bush regime, I have been left speechless.  I am trying to find my voice again, but am held back by my distrust of those who I had once championed.

Disgusted

The Dem capitulation to Bushes War continues apace.  I am so way beyond bummed.  We need better Democrats. Go to the MoveOn site and vote to support primary challengers for the enablers of this madness. Matt Stoller has a list of Bush Dog Democrats who enable this shit here.

Eventually the Progressive Movement needs to really do some soul searching and decide whether or not the Democratic Party is the best vehicle for our beliefs and aspirations.  Matt Stoller seems to think we need to flip 41 seats from conservative to Progressive to get the power needed to further the agenda.  I am not so sure that he is being overly optimistic. My fear is that the Democratic Party will view the Progressives as an annoying necessity.  They will toss us a bone now and then in exchange for our money and foot soldiers, but never really embrace the agenda.  Sound familiar, look at how the Republicans treat the Religious Right and you see the template that the party insiders are planning for the Progressive movement.

Obstruction

So Bushie commuted Scooters sentence.  I suppose that it is without irony that it happened after a weekend with the worlds leading autocrat Vladimir Putin. I guess little Georgie want to show Putie-Poot who had the biggest cajones. I am not surprised that Bush would do this. I guess that my response was so angry because I love this Country and its ideals and the whole rule of law thing,  I love the Constitution and the elegance of its construction.  I really hope that this country can survive intact through the next 19 months of the Bush administration.

By commuting the sentence Bush ensures Libby's silence. However, by use of commutation, Bush exposes himself to charges of Obstruction of Justice as Libby may have been acting on his behalf in the commission of the crime Libby was eventually convicted of. These were the core of the articles of impeachment that brought Nixon down. Unfortunately the current Republican party is a protection racket that will not act in the interest of the Nation. 

I would not be radical to impeach over this. No, there would not be a conviction because of the protection racket, but it would expose the Republicans who are hostile to the rule of law.

Scooters going to jail

So Reggie Walton didn't go for Scooters bullshit and now he's going to jail. So be prepared for the right-wing Wurlizter to go apeshit.  As usual Digby puts it best.

The degree to which the mainstream media enables and perpetuates misinformation spread by the paid flacks of Team Libby is astounding.  It is the "Big Lie" theory on steroids. At this point, six years into an administration that has committed so many crimes, lied with a facility that is truly astounding, and just generally fucked-up without consequence on so many levels, I can no longer believe that the mainstream press is independent in any way that is of any significance. The lies and the crimes that have been abetted  through failure of reportage, outright distortion or dishonesty are just too numerous to come to any other conclusion. The degree to which this administration and its fellow travelers are supported and nurtured by the media establishment clearly shows a complicity that is undeniable. Fuck em'.

If the next election goes the way I think it will, media consolidation should be a major priority on the agenda of the next Congress.

Iraq Funding

I have been thinking about the Supplemental Funding Bill which contained the funding for the Iraq war.  Given the veto, is it actually possible to craft a bill that could pass, much less get signed. It's going to be an interesting summer.

Veto

So, the dipshit-in-chief vetoed the Emergency Spending Bill.  The Democrats should send him the exact same bill again. They should send the same message that he does, my way, or, the highway. They should get the next one to him on Memorial Day or at the latest, the Fourth of July.  They should play this as Congress versus King George