The DCCC takes tone-deaf to a new level by asking for donations the weekend after 40+ members of their caucus folded on warrantless surveillance.
Even Fred Hiatt found the Dem’s actions indefensible:
THE DEMOCRATIC-led Congress, more concerned with protecting its political backside than with safeguarding the privacy of American citizens, left town early yesterday after caving in to administration demands that it allow warrantless surveillance of the phone calls and e-mails of American citizens, with scant judicial supervision and no reporting to Congress about how many communications are being intercepted.
If anything came out of Yearly Kos it is the fact that the Democratic Establishment and the bigfoot media still do not know how to ride this horse we call the progressive netroots. Paul Hogarth, who asked the five-point question of Hillary at the candidate breakout, thinks she badly hurt her chances for the nomination. That’s probably not the case, but the big controversy coming out of the convention is about Hillary’s performance. She’s received some decent reviews but there’s no question that she stumbled in the debate over the issue of lobbyist funding and that she underperformed in the breakout session. Accusations that she had planted questions are false, but she did purposively run out the clock by taking a third of her time answering the first question…on education.
Meanwhile, mainstream journalists like Time’s Jay Carney and The Politico’s Mike Allen were subjected to withering criticism and even outright ridicule.
Frontrunning candidates, the DCCC, prominent journalists, the congressional leadership…none of them know how to control the netroots. The netroots’ demands are simple: stop this administration from committing crimes and get our troops out of Iraq. After that, it’s all detail. With each capitulation, with each gloss-over and passing of the buck, the Establishment further alienates themselves from the citizen activists that do not need and will not be told what to do or think. We’ve educated ourselves and passed our verdict. Those that will not convict and sentence are just cogs in an appeasement machine that is chug-chug-chugging over a collective cliff.
There will be no successful triangulation of the administration’s war, or their crimes. The leader that plausibly makes the case that justice will be done is the candidate that will rise to the top.
If any of the candidates, or the leadership, or the media, thought or think that the Netroots’ can be tamed through co-option, they must surely be disabused of that notion by now.
The people of this country…the people that are truly paying attention and participating in the blogosphere…demand justice and an end to this war. And that is not going to change.
There will no successful triangulation of the administration’s war, or their crimes. The leader that plausibly makes the case that justice will be done is the candidate that will rise to the top.
just so
if this weren’t on the front page, I would give it a recommend.
Are the panels/forums which occurred at Yearly Kos available on video podcast?
I would love to see the podcast of “Blogs and the MSM: From Clash to Civilization.”
that the folks at the barber shop, the guys working on your car, most of the folks in the supermarket aisles know what’s going on.
They may not read the blogs or read them much, but they’re aligns more with the nutso, “far left” bloggers than it does with the MSM on the war, terrorism and even civil liberties.
I wonder when the democratic candidates and their courtiers will figure that one out?
mrs. skippy, who’s not as “inside baseball” as i am, turned to me last night as we watched the news about the i35 bridge investigation and said, “my tax dollars aren’t being spent on the things we need.”
everybody knows it. everybody knows the rich are sucking this country dry.
Glad you came out strong against the war. Always a good thing. To me though, it isn’t about Hillary’s performance, its about her values. I don’t trust her values. I’m having trouble with all of their values, except for Kucinich. Edwards is a hedge fund consultant. How can I trust that?
EVEN FRED HIATT DOESN’T LIKE IT!?!?!??!?!
That’s when you know something is bad.
Bravo, Booman.
Very well-put, BooMan.
When you lose Fred Hiatt … (so to speak)
As most every sentient being now knows, in a madcap rush to cower in fear, the United States Congress, between Wednesday August 1, 2007 and Sunday August 5, 2007, rammed through passage of legislation gutting FISA Court jurisdiction and eviscerating the Fourth Amendment and other Constitutional privacy protections. The hasty and ill considered legislation was demanded by the Bush Administration. The Democratic leadership and Congressional majorities were cowed into going along with the shredding of our Constitutional underpinnings by the bully pulpit of George Bush and the well oiled machinery and media savvy of the GOP. They, as always, had their voices ready, spoke in unison and got their message out with effectively little to no objection and counterpoint. The most odious and damaging acts always get rammed past a timid and docile Democratic base by the superior message discipline and PR machine of the GOP.
If just once the Democrats and progressives in this country had their most powerful Senators, Presidential candidates and most effective public relations people and grassroots organizers together in one place, organized and with coverage by all of the mainstream media; maybe, just maybe, things would be different. With all the blogging luminaries, political movement organizers and high profile politicians in one place, say Chicago for instance, they could come together as one and focus on the sacred oath and duty to defend the Constitution. They could all discuss the critical issue at hand, hold rallies in unison, give inspirational speeches, whip their fellow bloggers and politicians into a purposeful frenzy and get the word out like never before seen from the left side of the aisle. The perfect storm of opportunity could be harnessed to once and for all fully inform the American people of what is going on in our country and make a principled stand for what is right, just and Constitutional.
Wouldn’t it be glorious to see all the bloggers, their supporters and the politicians in one place and point in time, dropping their own interests, their own pet peeves, their own self congratulations, and putting duty to country and Constitution first and foremost? That perfect storm of opportunity and necessity might well be a seminal turning point in the restoration of our Democracy. I guess we can always dream of what might have been at Yearly Kos in Chicago during the first week of August 2007. Big time liberal bloggers constantly rail at the “cocktail weenie crowd”; but when we needed them most, they were chowing down on tiny hot dogs from a Hormel can. In some regards, the new bosses are already same as the old bosses.
There are moments in time that must be seized; but we never do. I am tired of fighting from our heels even when we have the majorities. The damage done by the FISA “reform” is absolutely immense; and much of it cannot be undone, even if the act is. The legal and rhetorical cover given the criminal Bush Administration, coupled with the mortal wound to our supposed occupance of the moral high ground, will never be reeled in. I would like to note that my hands are not entirely clean either. Although I was kicking and screaming over the last week, it should have been louder and more pointed, and I should have tried to call out the Yearly Kos participants, both bloggers and politicians, during the fact as opposed to after. I personally know and have the contact info of a couple of very significant participants at Yearly Kos, and I did not realize the moment and make my best effort to seize it either. I wrote this comment because I thought it needed to be said; not because I am holier than any of the “thous” at Yearly Kos. We have simply got to learn, adapt and do better than we have been. I truly believe the people, at least in their subconscience, are now well ahead of even the bloggers, much less the politicians. The time of need in this country is NOW, not in the post-electoral security of January 2009.
“Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream things that never were, and ask why not”. – Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Well said Booman! Just when I thought we were beginning to make some headway with the beltway bunch the DCCC kicks us in the teeth. We need to continue to find and support Progessives who will stand for what we believe. We also need to remember that the conservatives didn’t build the great “Wurlitzer” overnight.
Amen to that sir, Amen to all that.