I’m amused at how some people feel so threatened by a Netroots effort to merely identify Bush Dog Democrats. We worked hard to get Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. We have not seen the results that we want. It’s only natural that we will look to identify the offending members that have undermined our agenda, and see what we can do to fix the problem.
What are we supposed to do differently? Clap louder?
Once we know who within the party is enabling the Bush administration, we can better decide what to do about it.
And that’s what this is about. It’s not about purging the party of moderates, centrists, and conservatives. It’s about punishing those members that enable the Bush administration and undermine the leadership. Yes, we would like to expand the progressive caucus. But what we’d really like is to end the occupation of Iraq and get our civil liberties restored.
The problem isn’t just the Bush Dog Democrats. It’s also the leadership. Pelosi and Reid were under no requirement to put a Republican FISA bill up for a vote.
The Bush Dog Dems enable Bush, but Pelosi and Reid enable the Bush Dog Dems.
Let us not forget HR 1 and failure to impeach.
hey Boo- maybe the s”some people” and the “non- purgies” are the problem. Maybe that is what wrong with this goddamned party.Why the hell don’t we purge the bastards. All they are doing is enabling the son of a bitch to keep this nightmare going.
The answer is: the party has no balls. Yesterday I listened to Bernie Sanders (that commie pig) and ya know what he said. He said that instead fo backing down every time they discover that they don’t have the 60 votes needed, instead of pulling the proposed bill, the simply say- OK- if you want to phillibuster- go for it. EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!!! Let the media bury that! That they won’t do. Let them see who is fucking up this country.
How is that for an idea?
Check this out:
One Democratic Strategist apparently felt the need to request anonymity to make a remark like this.
It must be working. These people really are afraid of their own shadows. Pathetic.
I see this issue as a complex problem and I’ll try to sort out some of the sub-issues.
One persistent meme (or bit of propaganda) is that the Democratic Party is controlled by the radical left — (ok, you can stop laughing now). Oddly, the reverse situation is rarely heard on the MSM; that extreme right-wingers are a threat to the Republican party. So we often hear about the purported threat posed by the left when there are attempts to rein in wayward members.
There is much more I could say about this double standard, but there is a second issue, that is; the trope of control. Currently, the Senate is evenly divided — 49/49, with Sanders and Lieberman filling the last two slots, and Tim Johnson absent while recuperating. The leadership is Democratic, courtesy of Lieberman’s membership in the Democratic caucus, but there’s hardly a preponderance of votes, which means less in the Senate in any case because the leadership doesn’t have as much control as the House. Moreover, we’re on pace for the most filibusters ever.
My point is simple; there isn’t “control” in the sense that people allude to, and although Reid and the rest of leadership can be criticized (although it would mean more if the critics demonstrated they understood the Senate’s rules), there is little the Senate can do without some support from the Republicans. Inability is not the same thing as unwillingness, and the “divisive Democrats” and “do-nothing” memes were being rolled out by the Republicans even before the 110th Congress was seated. In fact, as it was recently told to Byron Dorgan, the Republican strategy (as discussed in their caucus) is to obstruct every Democratic proposal as much as possible, while at the same time invoking the “do-nothing” memes.
Another factor is the “instrumental” nature of votes, i.e., is the vote actually decisive, versus symbolic. Although I’m not apologizing for the Bush-dogs, it’s clear that many of the votes (but not all) are cast with an eye towards an inevitable outcome, and the Bush-dogs are especially prone to this. If there’s a conclusion that can be drawn from all this it’s that a veto proof coalition is required at this point to pass what you and I would regard as reasonable legislation. And many the accomplishments of this session have come only because extraordinary steps were taken to insulate them from Republican tactics.
I’ll resist the urge to say more at this point, but it’s been truly remarkable to watch some of the Republican shenanigans designed to stop the legislative process.