Should we blogger firebrands burn Steve Elmendorf in effigy for his unbelievably dismissive, offensive remarks about filibuster-keen bloggers in today’s WaPo? (New image created by mrboma, who named the file elmendork.jpg.)
But, first things first: That WaPo story — “Blogs Attack From Left as Democrats Reach for Center” — has the potential to suck a lot of oxygen out of our actions this weekend, unless we deal with it (and cleverly?), and then move on. Why move on? Let Jim VanDeHei and Steve Elmendorf spin away and mock us. We have a country that’s in crisis and we must get back to work to try to save it. We have the GOOD FIGHT. WE OWN THE GOOD FIGHT. ONWARD!
But, of course, every blogger — you too — is going to want to weigh in on remarks like these:
“‘The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections,’ said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. ‘The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left’.”
As VanDeHei makes sure to point out, Virginia governor Tim Kaine, who is giving the Dem response to the SOTU Tuesday night, has been hit by Arianna Huffington who wants Rep. John Murtha to give the response. VanDeHei quotes Kaine’s response to Huffington’s criticisms:
“‘Blogs can take up a lot of time if you’re on them,’ Kaine said to reporters Thursday. ‘You can get a lot done if you’re not bitterly partisan.'”
Bitterly partisan? That is NOT what I see here at BooTrib. I see people who are — as Jesse Jackson, Jr. says — trying to “keep hope alive” by simply asking their senators to fight a GOOD FIGHT …
… Fight a GOOD FIGHT … That’s all we want right now. We know only too well we’re in the minority. We see evidence every damn day. We simply want all Democrats to ACT LIKE you’ve got some guts, some nerve, some fight in you.
That’s why I’ve totally kissed and made up with John Kerry after his actions this week (I even signed up again for his newsletter after quitting in disgust last November).
And Hillary is getting the spanking she deserves. (Besides the Iraq issue, that flag burning pandering bullshit amendment did it for me.) And check out HowieinSeattle’s story, “Murtha: ‘Hillary Can’t Win’.” (In fairness, it’s good that Hil’s for the filibuster.)
But, as if to pile more on the leftie bloggers, Vandehei reaches to swat at Code Pink’s protests against Hillary this weekend … Keep reading! …
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is another frequent target of the Internet attacks. Code Pink, an antiwar women’s group with a flashy Web site, plans to protest one of Clinton’s weekend fundraisers and is using the Web site to rally people against the New York Democrat. The critics say Clinton has not challenged Bush aggressively enough on Iraq.
Guess what, Jim VandeHei. Damnit Janet — who was at that protest in Portland last night with Code Pink — and I would both much rather be sitting back, all relaxed, this weekend, just biding our time, waiting for a Democratic president’s SOTU and the confirmation of a rational, centrist jurist to the Supreme Court.
But that’s not our reality. My reality these days is a nightmare! And this “poliics as usual” that you inside-the-Beltway boys only know about just doesn’t cut it out here in the hinterlands.
Most Democrats in D.C. are eunuchs! And they’re too busy managing their contributor harems while D.C. is on fire! While we’ve got a White House, Pentagon, and Congress that has lost all sense of the meaning of the Constitution, the civil rights of American citizens, and has cracked all of our presumptive precepts — including that the U.S. would never initiate an unprovoked war.
And our Supreme Court, with Sam Alito aboard, is going to castrate what’s left of the checks and balances left in D.C. Any Democrat remaining in D.C. will most definitely be a eunuch.
The WaPo says that “Blogs Attack From Left as Democrats Reach for Center”:
Democrats are getting an early glimpse of an intraparty rift that could complicate efforts to win back the White House: fiery liberals raising their voices on Web sites and in interest groups vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience.
Fiery? Okay. I concede that. Manny is, for sure! Judy too! Tampopo, Janet, all of you! Actually, Judy is ON fire.
Faithful Progressive blog gets in a cautionary lecture mode:
Stand Up for Liberal Values, But Don’t Become Too Dogmatic
In our drive to get Democrats to stand up for principle, liberal blogs and writers sometimes seem anything but liberal. After reading Molly Ivins’ piece about how she could never, ever vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton, it occured to me that liberals sometimes become so self righteous and so convinced of their own purity that they sound like nothing so much as extreme Christian conservatives. Progressive religious bloggers can offer some perspective on this attitude, because we have at our disposal a long history of debate that suggests that the “If You Don’t Agree With Me Entirely, You’re Against Me” approach is a road to nowhere. … read all
Oh, save me and Molly, sister! Save us from our extremism, sistuh!
Fuck you. That remark gets me nowhere. Oh, Faithful Progressive, if you’d but looked at our 12 Days diares on Alito, our countless diaries and stories on Alito, our open threads, you’d see that we are decent, rational, but terribly worried people who desperately see the need to stand up to save our country.
Re the WaPo story, Ann Althouse critiques us:
Democrats are getting an early glimpse of an intraparty rift that could complicate efforts to win back the White House: fiery liberals raising their voices on Web sites and in interest groups vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience.
These activists — spearheaded by battle-ready bloggers and making their influence felt through relentless e-mail campaigns — have denounced what they regard as a flaccid Democratic response to the Supreme Court fight, President Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address and the Iraq war. In every case, they have portrayed party leaders as gutless sellouts.
But it’s the same old story, as the article acknowledges. The most activist members of a party want something stronger than what ordinary people like. How have bloggers made this any worse? One of the examples in the story is the demand for a filibuster of the Alito nomination, which was made on DailyKos — but it was made by John Kerry, who, for whatever reason, decided it was a good idea to be writing there. Whether that counts as bloggers putting on the pressure, I don’t know. Kerry could have found a forum in any number of places. And the fact is, the NYT was calling for a filibuster too.
That kind of scoping I can tolerate.
The rightie bloggers will probably LOVE this story. So what. We have the GOOD FIGHT. WE OWN THE GOOD FIGHT. ONWARD!
At first I really liked Kos’ declaration on his front page: Any dem who associates with Steve Elmendorf is going to get outed (I hope Kos follows through on this one).
But, ooh, burning in effigy and firebranding is very very good, too. Or, have you seen the giant inflatable rats that the union guys park in front of offending businesses (there was one in front of the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle for about three months)? I’d love to park one on Elmendorf’s DC suburban lawn.
Wow. I hadn’t seen Daily Kos yet today … just been reading and digesting this story, and thinking …
Elmendorf deserves to pay for what he said.
He can afford it. Look at his digs.
I just wrote an email to VandeHei saying that everything his readers need to know about Elmendorf’s political wisdom is revealed concisely within the article itself: Elmendorf “advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.”
And, looking at his “digs,” we learn all kinds of scary things, like that he’s “one of the 50 most powerful staff people on Capitol Hill.” Makes you wonder what kind of mental giants are the other 49.
I agree Mentioning that you helped John Kerry lose does not make you a credible writer. As for the filibuster all I can do is quote:
“It is better to die on your feet fighting, than to die on your knees crying.” (Emilio Zapata).
Ted Kennedy posted there yesterday, if you haven’t seen it. The coolest part is, he had one of his staffers monitoring the comments and commenting as well.
I was going to politely ask you if I could steal this, but I’m just takin’ it!
Be my guest. I’m sure others with better photoshop skills or fancier filters could do a much better job.
It’s fabulous!
I used to work with Photoshop all day every day for years … but I’m rusty. What tools and/or filters did you use to create the flame look? I’m curious.
I’m running photoshop 6, so I don’t have the latest and greatest. I started with a orange-yellow-orange gradient at the bottom of the image. Used the smudge tool to make flame peaks, then a motion blur at 90 degrees (vertical), a pixelate, another vertical motion blur, and then a ripple. Then I set the layer to 95% opaque.
I wanted the flames to be a bit brighter, but it took me a few tries to get it this good and I didn’t want to waste too much time on it, so I left it as is.
For people looking to learn how to photoshop, there are a several great tutorial sites including: Photoshop Lover, Good Tutorials, and Absolute Cross.
Thanks for the links!
Got PS for Christmas and have just been staring at it. Maybe this will jump start me.
Peace
Susan, that they are mentioning us at all means they’re getting tremendous pressure from their constituents to support a filibuster. I had to make numerous phone calls this morning to various local offices for Clinton and Schumer just to find one that didn’t have its voicemail inbox already full. That should tell you something. These people (the beltway, lobbyist, in-crowd dems) are running scared. No surprise they would run to WaPo to find a willing partner in dissing us.
Great perspective, Steven! I like it.
Okay … back to work, everyone! We’ve got a country to save.
All of this chatter makes me dig my feet in deeper. It’s motivating, it’s invigorating, it’s so ludicrously wrong headed it makes me laugh a hearty laugh and forge ahead.
It isn’t unlike the 60s when we felt our protests and hard work finally ‘click in.’ When it happens there’s really nothing that can stop it. The internet only makes the movement bigger, louder, and more aggressive. It allows us all, from all generations, to merge as one.
Power to the people indeed. Power to the people.
At best, Mr. Elmendorf is being intellectually dishonest with these remarks. He is portraying this as a horse race, an election contest, which only he is skilled enough and qualified enough and experienced enough to comment upon.
Or direct.
Otherwise, the Dems might lost the next election.
Mr. Elmendorf, the Dems have lost the last three national elections, steadily lost them, under your kind of direction.
What’s happening out here in the nation at large is a groundswell of disgust and disapproval for Bush, Congress, and your kind of inside the Beltway expertise.
What’s coming your way is not the usual trending and polling and mood shifts of the electorate. We are angry out here, one and all, and we are coming for the shepherds, including you.
You. Are. Fired.
Great post Susan. Democrats.com has “Saturday Updates.” My friend Bob Shields describes as “the latest news, unfiltered by the Bush lap-dogs in the national media.”
What I don’t understand is how these guys seem to be stuck in the 90’s thinking we’re talking about BILL CLINTON vs George HW BUSH. Those tactics worked then. But things have changed!! The Republicans have moved so far out of the mainstream since then that using them to gauge the “middle” is leading them to “triangulate” away our constitution. They seem to be living in such a bubble that they don’t see the reality of NOW. We’re not even talking about liberal and progressive anymore (I always want to laugh when people refer to Howard Dean as liberal!!!) We’re talking about the basic values of democracy!!
ground between Democrats and insanity.
Many of them are perfectly aware of this.
What Elmendorf means is: “The trick is to harness their energy and their money without representing them.”
Yeah. “Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign” should be on his knees, begging our forgiveness for screwing up the last election. Not publically plotting to fleece us while he and his ilk screw it up again.
No donations to anyone represented by Elmendorf.
“a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.” He is clearly among those who turned victory into defeat with advice just like what he’s peddling now: don’t make waves, don’t offend anybody, go along to get along. The party has been following that advice for more than a decade and getting its ass kicked 24/7.
“vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience”!!? Sorry guy, trying just don’t cut it — succeeding does, and that’s exactly what these losers-turned-pundit have never been able to do. Kerry lost because nobody knew what, if anything, he stood for. So now we get idiots like Elmendorf prescribing the same old pill. Forget him, forget Donna Brazille, forget all the old losers.
The Romans used to exile their losing generals. It’s long past time for the Democratic Party to do the same.
fiery liberals raising their voices on Web sites and in interest groups vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience.
The biggest problem to me is that our elected officials don’t really stand for anything so absolutely no one in that “much broader audience” cares at all. That is the diametric opposite of the strategy republicans used to take power.
On a positive note, I realized a few days ago that I’m still registered to vote in Florida so Nelson is technically my senator. Time for phone calls on Monday. He may be a lost cause, but chances are millions of times better than with Shelby or Sessions.
Alito is going to put a lot of them out of work.
Really–Alito, not angry activists.
The economy itself has made up its mind–it only needs one political party. It’s funding Republicans 3:1 or more, maybe much more (I’m not up on my stats). The only way Dean has been able to raise half as much money for Democrats as Republicans get is by tapping millions of individuals–workers, retirees, dependents and consumers.
If the Party decides–or is Constitutionally forced–to cut back services to the people, there’s literally no use for them. The economy has its party.
For better or worse Democratic leaders, you’re in steerage with us rabble. They don’t want you on the promenade deck any more than they want us.
We at least will hire you, if you’ll work for us.
This is may a tad over-optimistic, but Joshua Holland on Alternet says, “Filibuster coming within reach!”He has all the names and numbers, too, tho he has Obama still listed as Undecided. A recent commentor on Democrats.com claims Jim Lehrer said that the Senator from Illinois is now pro-filibuster.
He also quotes Atrios, thusly:
“Cruising into Tuesday evening next week there will be two possible storylines:
1) The Democrats are a bunch of losers, as are all of their supporters. Bush and his giant codpiece looked magnificent at the state of the union, and Mrs. Alito was very happy and smiling sitting next to Mrs. Bush safe and content now that the magnificent and mighty President Bush made that bad Ted Kennedy go away.
2) The Democrats shocked Washington today by holding together, dropping a mighty turd in the punchbowl of the Bush administration, dealing a deadly blow to his nomination of Alito. The president won’t be too happy tonight as he gives the 2006 state of the union speech.
Those are the choices.”
Whip this into a story, honey … it’s great stuff.
Hey, I just tried calling Biden and Landrieu – “mailboxes are full” – heheheh!
Those of you who are inclined might want to express your views regarding the US practice of kidnapping the wives and children of individuals who are suspected of opposing US policies.
Sure thing, Ducky.
But, you know what. None of the agony that we are putting other human beings through will ever stop until we seize control of this country … and we end it ourselves.
God only knows what else goes on that never gets in a newspaper. I’d rather not dwell on it.
We need Democratic senators and congresspeople in CONTROL to call hearings and lay it ALL OUT ON THE TABLE and APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD for all we have done.
We need to admit to the world what we have done and beg for its forgiveness. Only then can we all heal.
Another lame attempt to trick me into inciting people to violate the Patriot Act.
Maybe next week. 😛
Fiery?!? Damn straight! (but first, coffee…to much fun in the cafe last night)
“Liberals sometimes become so self righteous and so convinced of their own purity that they sound like nothing so much as extreme Christian conservatives.”
Been seeing this word used a lot lately – mostly by rollover Dems who would rather spend their time lecturing progressives for a supposed lack of tolerance than fighting conservatives for their insidous agenda.
But you know something? If being a ‘purist’ means refusing to tolerate:
to name but a few…
Then yeah, I’m a purist. Why aren’t you?
You’ve kind of hit on a theme that I was about to write about — but from a different angle.
I find liberals to be the least ideologically pure of any political group out there. An example is from the above post: “That’s why I’ve totally kissed and made up with John Kerry after his actions this week”. Why? Has Kerry suddenly adopted your agenda? No, he just (for selfish political reasons) decided to throw up his hand and say “I think we should filibuster”. Crips, that is like a guy leaning over a bar and saying to a girl “I think you’re not half ugly” and the girl throwing herself at him.
Liberals seem to adopt politicians who MIGHT agree with their positions, but certainly won’t fight for them. For example: liberals are divided over whether to support Hillary Clinton, Wesley Clark, Russ Feingold, etc. Yet has any of these proposed candidates adopted an agenda that is any way progressive?
The conservatives had an agenda long before they had a candidate. They disliked Dole and Bush I and pined for a day when they would have their man. In the end they settled on an idiot –but he is their idiot and they are going to stick by him no matter how much he destroys our rights, the military, etc.
Maybe we need our idiot, as well. Someone who does not shriek in horror every time someone mentions universal health care, or cutting military spending or raising taxes on the wealthy.
I’d ordinarily agree with you — particularly since you articulated your position so very well (obviously, you’re a very good writer and I wish I could see what you’ve written for the MSM).
But, I truly believe we are in a desperate crisis like none other in my lifetime … except maybe the Vietnam War. Although, at that time, we had far more progressive legislation …
So, I’m willing to dance with the ones we’ve got at the moment.
I tried – all out — to help Howard Dean become our nominee in 2003-2004, but that didn’t happen. So I decided — in a cold logical way — to support Kerry. But I actually got enthused for him when he was enduring the Swiftboating attacks….
dunno. You’ve given us a lot to think about.
Food for thought: when a candidate stands before a group of people who the candidate knows are conservative, there are certain issues the candidate must address in order to be taken seriously. It is not enough that the candidate say they are for a certain thing –but that they will fight for it (for instance, overturning Roe).
Democratic candidates could spend two hours blasting Bush and end up getting a standing ovation. I would even argue that said candidate could blast Bush while at the same time articulating a blatantly pro-conservative agenda and still get a standing ovation.
Conservatives can rattle off a number of issues that they all agree on: anti-abortion, low taxes, strong military, less regulation of business . . . for starters.
I’m not so sure liberals can do the same. Recently I had this discussion with a group of people that I was so sure would agree to the same set of values: a progressive tax system, pro-choice, universal health care, strong funding of public education. I could not get 100% of the group to agree on any item. Each person came up with an objection to an item.
Maybe it is enough that Democrats adopt a couple of items in order to attact a majority of voters — the economy and health care, for example. But I agree with a writer on Huffington Post who recently wrote that it will take a major crisis in order for voters to go back to the Democrats — a depression, for instance. He may be right. In 1992, recovering from a deep recession, voters turned to Clinton. It may take much more than that for the voters to decide to vote en mass for someone like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry or Joe Biden (Joe Biden, don’t get me going!).
GAH!!! Joe Biden – GAH!!!!
Of that list, I’d go with Kerry. The potential’s there. And I look at it this way – if he decided to spearhead a filibuster effort based on cold-hearted political calculation, at least he’s calculating correctly how progressives and Democratic activists feel about this issue.
I’ll still support Al Gore in a heartbeat though…
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/churches.iraq.reut/
Approval for war?
http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm
Think the country heading in the right direction?
http://www.pollingreport.com/right.htm
I could do this all day long, we are the center! We are the majority!
I’m so mad at Elmendorf I just had to come back and take another swing. He’s another one of those fools who thinks that if you’re more submissive and more compliant, you’ll win. He could’nt be more wrong.
In the animal world when a dog is attacked by an opponent of superior strength he rolls over to expose his belly, and if he’s REALLY submissive he pees. That’s what Elmendorf wants Democrats to be…belly-up peeing dogs. What we need to be doing is looking so fierce that nobody wants to upset us.
I mistakenly typed Janet Strange instead of Damnit Janet as the BooTribber who went to the Code Pink event last night in Portland.
carter, mondale, dukakis, kerry and gore all did their own “good fight” thing …
frankly, I have ZERO interest in such “good fights”.
fighting is about winning, and you win cuz you kick the other fuckers ass AND MAKE THEM LOSE!
the bushco people do NOT want anyone but their aristocrat brats to have an education, health care, pay that can be spent outside the company store …
a good fight against these people is a waste of time.
rmm.
“‘The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections,’ said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. ‘The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left’.”
That burns me up (and I’m burning up already from the slight fever I’ve got to go along with this damn cold). It’s like he (and the Powers That Be) are saying, “Come work for us, come give us your dollars…but then go back to making your little protest signs while we make the REAL decisions.”
Well, Stevie boy, you’ve lost my energy. And you’ve lost my money…just when I actually have some extra to spare. I’ll send money to and work for individual candidates who I feel represent my interests and the interests of those like me: those who believe in a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her health, those who believe in ending this immoral war, those who fight for the least of my brothers and sisters. But not one more dime for the Democratic Loser Council and their attitude of supporting the status quo.
I’m fucking mad now…see my new sig…
If our programmer — hint, BooMan — would allot us a few more characters in our sigs, we could all add your sig.
it’d be a powerful statement if we all adopted this as a protest. (But I love my Hickok quote so much, I can’t abandon it … oh dear …)
Are you going to add a link to it? If so, to what?
Haven’t thought about it…I do have a couple of .Mac accounts sitting idle (one for vacation crap this summer)…maybe it’s time I come off the sidelines of the blogger world…
why are the Dems being painted into a corner where one of the only active subsets of the party is bad subset?
why are they being painted into a corner so that ANY idea which benefits ANYONE with AGI under 500 grand a year is a bad idea?
cuz they ain’t got any message.
(well, actually – they kind of do have a message – other than howard & murtha and 6 or 165 others –
the message is kind of the Junior Achievement of Rove, Ailes and Atewater. )
I wouldn’t piss on this guy if he was on fire – I’d respect him if he was honest about being a toady for the rich.
rmm.
Hi susan:
Thanks for the link…I think maybe you missed my point–I support the filibuster fight! It’s a debate about tone not tactics. We likely agree on
many issues–why do you presume that I’m wobbly-kneed when I’ve been fightin “the good fight” for 30 years? Are you trying to offend your allies–trying to make heretics or converts? I replied here–Boos at Booman Tribune.
My point was simple: keep fighting the good fight–just try not to be such an ass about it! Bullying, as Bush has learned, just doesn’t work.
Best to you,
FP