Sunday, May 29, 2005
[lazy blogging] Democraptastical.....
Democrats follow Clintonomics down the toilet:
Democrats are still engaged in a debate about whether to continue embracing Clinton-style corporate-written "free" trade deals, or whether to start putting America's middle-class first. If there was any debate about where the right place to go politically is, a new poll puts it to rest.
The new Democracy Corps poll pits the New York Times' Tom Friedman's "free" trade views up against CNN's Lou Dobbs' views on fair trade - and it shows Dobbs views destroy Friedman's in the public's mind.
Sadly, the former Clintonites/Beltway insiders who put together this poll (some of whom like Stan Greenberg I do really admire) couldn't prevent their own biases from trying to skew the result: they could only bring themselves to write a headline that said a huge 54%-40% gap meant that "Lou Dobbs is ahead of Tom Friedman FOR NOW."
Nonetheless, this poll should serve as a big wake up call to Democrats: on trade, stop listening to the likes of Wall Street types like Bob Rubin and Tom Friedman, and start listening to Lou Dobbs' and those of us who have shown how powerful a populist message on trade really is.
Cowering for our Troops:
Polls show 57 percent of Americans believe going to war in
WHY DID WE BOTHER TO STAND UP AGAINST THE NUCLEAR OPTION? WHEN CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS ARE IN SUCH A HURRY TO LAY DOWN!!!
Though Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is still calling for a delay in voting on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador, the Boston Herald reports that she has, more importantly, "decided to drop her plan to use procedural delays" to stop the nomination altogether. Her decision came after conferring with that profile in courage, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). Worse, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) came out to specifically reassure the public that "There is no desire for a filibuster."
Let's understand how sad this really is: the Democrats are backing down and cowering in a corner, EVEN AFTER top GOP Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) gave an impassioned speech begging Senators to stop the nomination. The Democrats, in other words, have all the cover they need - yet are trembling in fear, and backing off.
Contrast this behavior with that of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). He was an ardent proponent of the "nuclear" option to end filibusters. And yet, he's now threatening a filibuster over stem cell legislation. Of course I don't agree with his filibuster, and think he's an unbelievable hypocrite. But, in a way, his tactical hypocrisy shows the difference between the parties: he's positioned himself as a conviction politician who is willing to fight with everything he's got - no matter how hypocritical in terms of tactics - on what he portrays as his principles.
Democrats, on the other hand, supposedly worked to protect the filibuster, but are now showing they aren't even willing to use it in extreme cases, where they have cover from other Republicans. If confirming right-wing judges and further emasculating Democrats is the prime result of the filibuster "deal," then we have a lot to be worried about.
All of the above if from sirotablog
