Month: November 2008

The Principled Base

Howie Klein and the other Blue America blogs (FireDogLake, Digby, and Crooks&Liars) are showing more principle than we saw yesterday in the Democratic Senate caucus. Howie explains how-so at DownWithTyranny:

OK, so last night Stevens was defeated bringing the Democratic majority to at least 58. An intense recount procedure looms for Minnesota, where only 206 votes separates Al Franken and rubber stamp incumbent Norm Coleman. And early voting has already begun in the December 2nd Georgia run-off between Jim Martin and Saxby Chambliss.

Political insiders are all excited about all this stuff. Should the grassroots be? I’m not so certain. Sure, I think Norm Coleman and Saxby Chambliss are two of the absolute worst members of the U.S. Senate and each makes the place and even bigger disgrace than it would be without them. And both Franken and Martin seem like decent and conscientious guys. (Even Allen Buckley, the Libertarian candidate who threw the Georgia race into a run-off, thinks Martin is a better choice.) I’m rootin’ for him and Franken. But no fund drives at Blue America. We’ve given enough this year. And what did we get in return? Joe Lieberman smirking on TV. If I lived in Georgia I’m sure I’d go vote for Martin. If the pitiful slobs in the Senate Democratic caucus want him to win… they’re stinking rich and basically take as much in bribes from corporate America as the Republicans do. They don’t need our money. We’ll be saving it for primaries in 2010. [Emphasis added]

Bloggers spend a lot of time supporting Democratic candidates and asking their readership — the core of the online progressive movement — to donate their hard-earned money to support these candidates. People like me have had jobs on campaigns to help facilitate that process and grow online donor support for campaigns from the progressive grassroots. But at what cost? The long-term risk of unquestioned continued fundraising for any and all Democratic candidates (or even ones that have learned how to say the right things to bloggers) is that the progressive base will be alienated by the lack of meaningful results.  Yes, we can do a lot to help get people elected. But are they the right kind of people? Do they run on a progressive platform, yet vote with the centrist leadership every step of the way? Do they lie to our face like Chris Carney? Do they win with the support of people like Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, and Rahm Emanuel — and then feel obligated to dance with the girl that brought them to the Hill, thereby strengthening the wrong parts of the Democratic Party when they should be defining a shift to the Left?

What truly scares me is if things continue to go as they have gone during the 110th Congress and into this lame duck session and, as a result, the progressive base turns off. They stop donating to good candidates because their trust has been broken so many times by Democrats. They stop using grassroots pressure tactics to get Democratic legislators to vote the right way on key issues because the offices on the Hill never, ever listen to their input. They stop reading progressive blogs because they realize the asks for their support, time, and money on behalf of candidates was unwise in the face of the evidence.

I think Howie is making a good point. The progressive online movement needs to prepare to put our people in office. No more acts of faith for the ability of the DSCC or DCCC to pop champagne bottles because another Democrat from a place that’s not a Democratic country got elected. We need to pick our candidates and run them to win against the worst of Washington, regardless of whether their opponents are Democrats or Republicans. It’s the only way to get the country on track. A majority has not yet been proven to be sufficient for change. We saw that clearly yesterday.

Retroactive Immunity Not a Done Deal?

This is very interesting and I’d like to know more. Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation was quoted in the NY Times two days ago saying that retroactive immunity for telecom companies who illegally spied on Americans with the Bush administration could be reversed under an Obama administration.

In perhaps the most critical test, civil liberties groups that are suing major phone companies that took part in the N.S.A. program are waiting to find out whether a federal judge will throw out the lawsuits based on immunity granted by Congress in June.

The Justice Department has already moved to take advantage of the immunity provision by certifying in court that the phone companies were complying with a presidential order. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that has taken the lead in the lawsuit, maintains that Congress acted beyond its powers.

A hearing is set for Dec. 2. Cindy Cohn, legal director for the foundation, said that as the case moved forward the new administration could act to withdraw the immunity certification made by the Bush Justice Department.

“Nothing will be over by Jan. 20,” when Mr. Obama is inaugurated, Ms. Cohn said.

If this is a possibility, I hope one of the first acts of the Obama Justice Department is to withdraw certifications of immunity from these telecom companies.

It’s also heartening to see that the good people at the EFF are still fighting to uncover the truth and maintain the rule of law in the face of the 110th Congress caving like a house of cards to the Bush-Cheney administration’s demands for retroactive immunity and the gutting of FISA. Hopefully the EFF will find friendlier partners in the Obama administration.

The Smartest Man in DC

I think we need to stop for a moment and recognize Joe Lieberman as the smartest politician in Washington. He correctly made a bet about the fortitude of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate and he is right, against all apparent odds. Again, with Lieberman staying as committee chair, he has shown himself to know the Democratic caucus better than any of his colleagues.

Go Inside

Lorelei Kelly has a really important piece up at Huffington Post, calling on 20-something bloggers to go work on Capitol Hill.

So here’s my pitch: You twenty-somethings who are reading this, if you can’t take your day job after being part of such a political earthquake like last week’s election, go find your local Member of Congress and apply for a job. Take the district job over one on Capitol Hill. Even though DC is as giddy as that prisoner in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave–you know, where he is chained immobile to a wall for years–and then gets taken out to see the sun–the states are still where the most important action is going to be found because influential citizen input is a missing link for many issues on Capitol Hill. Then, when you write your letter to the Chief of Staff or mobilize your contacts, bill yourself as a “New Media” or “Citizen Participation” Specialist. The great thing about being part of a new movement is that you get to make up your own job title. You will know more about how this election was electronically organized than anyone working in the office (but don’t brag about it). In fact, apply for the job advertised, and sell your qualities for fulling those requirements, but come with a creative plan about how you are going to keep the citizens of the district involved and inspired.

As a blogger who moved from outside the system and has spent the last two years working on campaigns, I can say this is a path that the online progressive movement needs many, many more people to follow. We need more and better insiders. That’s how we can achieve change. Bloggers tend to be movement progressives and we need to get people inside the DC/Democratic Party system that will bring progressive ideals into closed-door planning meetings.

Moreover, change is a long, slow process. We need people inside now who in five, ten or fifteen years will be in positions of major influence throughout our party. We can’t count on change coming over night, so it’s time to do the hard work to be better positioned down the road.

Back Asswards

I have many more thoughts on this that will be on hold until tomorrow, but BooMan nails the back assward nature of the deal currently being reported between Senate Democrats and Joe Lieberman.

CNN reports, and MSNBC concurs, that Joe Lieberman will keep his gavel on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Both outlets report that Lieberman will be stripped of one of his two subcommittee chairs. CNN (on teevee) specifies that it will be his subcommittee chair on the Environment & Public Works Committee. That would be the Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection. Big fucking deal. In other words, if this reporting is correct, Lieberman will be stripped of a subcommittee chair that presides over an issue where he votes with the Democrats, and left in charge of a full and subcommittee (Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland) where he votes against the Democrats. That’s fucking brilliant. I certainly hope the reporting is wrong. Fire away!!

Seriously, this is back asswards. It resembles the sort of bargain would expect someone who had never seen a political fight, new what oversight was, or had ever witnessed the US Senate operate. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Democratic Majority…

Wanker of the Day

Lisa Miller of Newsweek, for penning a column that is not satire called “Is Obama the Antichrist?”

Now Strandberg was receiving up-to-the-minute news from his constituents in Illinois. One of the winning lottery numbers in the president-elect’s home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast (also known as the Antichrist). “It is very eerie, and I take it for a sign as to who he really is,” wrote one of Strandberg’s correspondents.

…

No wonder, then, that Obama triggers such fear in the hearts of America’s millennialist Christians. Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University’s law school, says he does not believe Obama is the Antichrist, but he can see how others might. Obama’s own use of religious rhetoric belies his liberal positions on abortion and traditional marriage, Staver says, positions that “religious conservatives believe will threaten their freedom.” The people who believe Obama is the Antichrist are perhaps jumping to conclusions, but they’re not nuts: “They are expressing a concern and a fear that is widely shared,” Staver says.

Before Christ comes again, those who are saved will ascend to heaven, according to this end-times theology, in a huge, upward whoosh called the Rapture. Strandberg is so certain that the Rapture is coming, he’s bought a number of Internet addresses in addition to RaptureReady: AntiAntichrist, Tribulationus and RaptureMe. In the event that RaptureReady crashes during the apocalypse, anyone who needs an update will, with a simple Google search, be able to get one. Strandberg says Obama probably isn’t the Antichrist, but he’s watching the president-elect carefully. On his Web site, he has something called the Rapture Index, a calculation based on signs and prophecy of the proximity of the end. According to Strandberg, any number over 160 means “fasten your seat belts.” Obama’s win pushed the index to 161. [Emphasis added]

It’s pretty stunning that has made it into one of the country’s widest read weekly publications. Miller presents radical fringe religious ideas as reasonable, expected fact. She gives multiple radicals a platform to say the same thing, while providing no backing for its content: namely, Obama’s probably the Antichrist and fundamentalists are scared. Since when does the random occurrence of three lottery balls have meaning meritorious of elevation to the national press? Is Staver so naive that she thinks there’s actually a need to *not* wonder about why fundamentalist Christians are scared of Obama? Look lady, just because some kook has bought domain names doesn’t mean that what they’re about is reasonable and a good idea (see: PalinforVP.com).

There are a lot of crazy things happening in the world. Times are changing and some of our fellow citizens aren’t really excited about that prospect. But just because a non-quantitative assessment on a scale exists on a website somewhere, it doesn’t mean it has validity. Rather than assigning negative religious roles to the next leader of the free world, Miller and Newsweek would be better served trying to report on why radical Christian fundamentalists are so scared about electing a Democrat to the White House who happens to be black. There are still real problems of bigotry and hate in America; Miller’s article elevates them, rather than trying to marginalize the people who perpetuate them. It’s appalling and the editors at Newsweek ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Brutal Analysis of the Current GOP

Frank Rich delivers a brutal analysis of the Republican Party in the NY Times today.

The G.O.P. ran out of steam and ideas well before George W. Bush took office and Tom DeLay ran amok, and it is now more representative of 20th-century South Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America. The proof is in the vanilla pudding. When David Letterman said that the 10 G.O.P. presidential candidates at an early debate looked like “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club,” he was the first to correctly call the election.

While the GOP has become largely a Southern regional party that’s funded by big business on the one hand and religious fundamentalists on the other, it’s advocated policies that further ensure a growing distance with mainstream America. The GOP is not going away, but it is being artificially propped up by the wealth of its core supporters and decades of successful messaging to make radical reactionary views seem normative of the American mainstream to the press. Of course voters are clearly seeing through this.

Anything resembling a competent first two years by Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress should ensure the continued regionalization of the Republican Party. How they respond will be interesting to see. John McCain’s response to this dynamic of progressive was to go negative and get nasty. Sarah Palin clearly took that ball and ran with it. But the American people didn’t buy what they were selling. Can the GOP adjust? Maybe, but nothing we’ve seen from this nasty, brutish party over the last sixteen years suggests that they’re inclined to do so.

Everything He Wants and More

Via Jane Hamsher, things are looking up for Joe Lieberman and his relationship with Connecticut Democrats over two years after he defeated the Democratic Party’s nominee for Senate.

In Connecticut, it may have taken some energy from a campaign to have the Democratic State Central Committee censure Lieberman. The committee is supposed to consider the censure Dec. 17.

“I can tell you, certainly, that the fact that President-elect Obama comes and says he wants him back in the caucus has made some people step back,” said Nancy DiNardo, the Democratic state chairwoman.

Lieberman’s camp was happy to amplify the sentiment. One Lieberman supporter on Capitol Hill said, “There is no taste for retribution at this time.”

Another way to look at this is that Joe Lieberman has always wanted to stay in the Democratic caucus and have a powerful committee chair – Homeland Security. The way things are going, Lieberman is not only going to get what he wants, he’s going to get more. He’s going to have his reputation rehabilitated and he will return to the Senate after campaigning viciously against Barack Obama, having attained even more power and credibility than before his work as a hatchet man for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

It’s hard to comprehend a more remarkable situation. If this is what ends up happening and if Joe Lieberman thought that this was a likely outcome for him even if he campaigned for John McCain and against Barack Obama,  then I think it’s time we recognize the fact that Joe Lieberman understands the Democratic Party and its persistent timidity better than any Washington politician or grassroots activist. His successes put the rest of us to shame, which is to say nothing of the absolute humiliation he is heaping upon the Democrats who are now fighting in his corner.