There's a Senate Centrist Coalition. Uber- Vichy Joe Lieberman quits it, forming a new center-er group with Republicans and fellow Vichys like Mary Landrieu (V-LA)(she who did whatever Bush asked her to in exchange for false promises to seriously rebuild New Orleans. Fool.)
I both hate and love to say it: I told you so.
(Photo: an unpaid mountain rescue volunteer battles the elements on the way to a successful, and cost-free, rescue at 9,000' on Mt. Hood, Oregon.)
Here's the cherry on top of the "Democrats take back both houses" sundae: Ciro Rodriguez appears to have won his "second chance" race for a House seat!
UPDATE: Thanks to Wunder, the poster has been found! The version I had read "Ski Bare" or "Ski Bear" (don't remember which), but this is the famous pic. It's available at www.bearvalleysportshop.com.
On Sunday, November 12th in Racine, I will hold my 1000th Listening Session with the people of Wisconsin. Before reaching that milestone, I want you to know that I've decided to continue my role as Wisconsin's Junior Senator in the U.S. Senate and not to seek the Democratic nomination for President in 2008.
Like many Americans, I am excited by the results of the November 7th election. My fourteen years in the Senate have been the greatest privilege of my life and I am extremely pleased with what we have accomplished. During so much of that time, however, we Democrats have not only been in the minority but have often been so deeply mired there that my role has often been to block bad ideas or to simply dissent. That is a very important role but I relish the thought that in this new Congress we can start, not only to undo much of the damage that one-party rule has done to America, we can actually advance progressive solutions to such major issues as guaranteed healthcare, dependence on oil, and our unbalanced trade policies. The Senate of the 110th Congress could also well be a place of greater bi-partisan opportunities for change; something I am very proud to have been effective at in both Republican and Democratic Senates. ***
I have traveled to seventeen states trying to promote the election of progressive Democrats in all states. At every stop from Birmingham, Alabama to Burlington, Vermont, to Ft. Dodge, Iowa, to Las Vegas, Nevada, people have agreed with my view that we need to stand up for a strong, principled Democratic party that is willing to replace timidity with taking the risks of promoting a platform of bold solutions to our nation's problems. Unfailingly, people responded well to my positions: opposition to the Iraq war; calling for a timeline to redeploy our troops from Iraq so we can focus on those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001; my opposition to the flawed provisions of the USA Patriot Act that threaten the freedoms of law-abiding Americans; my call for accountability for the Administration's arrogant disregard for the law especially with regard to illegal wiretapping; fighting for fiscal responsibility including tough common sense budget rules that will help end the reckless policies that have heaped a mountain of debt on our children and grandchildren; as well as my strong belief in guaranteed healthcare for all Americans and substantial investment in alternative energy sources and technologies.
Yet, while I've certainly enjoyed the repeated comments or buttons saying, "Run Russ Run", or "Russ in '08", I often felt that if a piece of Wisconsin swiss cheese had taken the same positions I've taken, it would have elicited the same standing ovations. This is because the hunger for progressive change we feel is obviously not about me but about the desire for a genuinely different Democratic Party that is ready to begin to reverse the 25 years of growing extremism we have endured. ***
At this time ... I believe I can best advance that progressive agenda as a Senator with significant seniority in the new Senate serving on the Foreign Relations, Intelligence, Judiciary and Budget Committees. *** while I would strongly prefer that our nominee in 2008 be someone who had the judgment to oppose the Iraq war from the beginning, I am prepared to work as hard as I can ... to maintain or increase our gains from November 7 in the Congress and, of course, to elect a Democrat as President in 2008.
Me to my kids this morning: “The Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives, and probably the Senate. So we control the Congress, and if we want to hold hearings into what Bush is doing, the Republicans can’t stop us.”
Yeah, yeah, terrible title. I'm out of practice. 
Proving I'm a Democrat, I'm airing a semi-counterpoint to my last post.
... and pretends to lead it, as all marginal pols do.
At least there's one "Democrat" who remains reliable: Joe Lieberman (V-CT), who can be relied upon to let down both the Democratic Party and America's little-d democratic principles. On the day before Independence Day, he's outdone himself: like the WATB he (like all neocons) is, he has announced that he is an egotist first, a Democrat second, and that if he loses in the Dem primary to Ned Lamont, he'll run as an independent. Therefore, even before the primary race is held, Lieberman's out gathering signatures for a run as an independent in case he loses.
'For all the working-class people of Texas, Doyle was our guy'
By BUD KENNEDY
In My Opinion
Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH - Taps sounded Monday for the all-time champion of Texas veterans, a former state senator buried at 98 in a custom pine box.
When Doyle Willis was born in a Kaufman County log cabin, cars were still new and the Texas Capitol had been open less than 20 years.
He served there off and on for half a century, arguing and scrapping if necessary for the needs of police officers, firefighters, schoolteachers, children, older adults and most of all, Fort Worth.
Back then, a Democrat would fight. Willis brought four years of World War II combat experience and a Bronze Star medal to Austin, and never abandoned his fellow American veterans or their families whenever they needed help from Austin.
As an honor guard stood ready to fire a salute, former Texas labor leader Gary Horton of Galveston listed more Texans who counted on Willis.
“He was the friend of the carpenters, the plumbers, the pipefitters, the autoworkers,” said Horton, a former AFL-CIO official. “For all the working-class people of Texas, Doyle was our guy.”
Men in shirtsleeves and women in print dresses mingled with former state lawmakers and leaders at his funeral, a simple service that drew mostly old friends from his home neighborhoods of Oakhurst and Riverside to the First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth.
Former House Speaker Gib Lewis of Fort Worth and I shared a row of honorary pallbearers, along with Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders. Willis wrote us both letters on a 1927 Royal typewriter, but Lewis said we definitely weren’t the only targets of Willis’ advice.
“Doyle took a lot of people under his wing,” Lewis said with a grin, remembering a 1976 election when a young Lewis staffer named Mike Millsap won a Texas House seat.
At 6 o’clock on the morning after Millsap won, his home phone rang.
“Mike, this is Doyle Willis,” a voice growled on the other end.
“Congratulations. Now here’s what you need to do in Austin,” and Willis delivered a 30-minute early-morning lecture on the inner workings of the Texas Legislature.
By then, Willis had already served off and on for 30 years, chairing four special commissions that helped write Texas laws on child abuse. He also wrote the Texas civil service laws that protect police officers, firefighters and other government workers from arbitrary or political firings.
Even the party's ticket is younger than usual. Bell, who spoke Friday night, is 46. Today, the convention will hear from lieutenant governor nominee Maria Luisa Alvarado of San Antonio and U.S. Senate nominee Barbara Ann Radnofsky of Houston, both not yet 50.
"The difference between this year and when we came here six years ago is like the difference between night and day," said David Van Os, an Austin labor lawyer who is running against Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican.
"Six years ago, the party leaders had a defeatist attitude. They were afraid to speak out. ... Now, there's a lot of enthusiasm."
This is still the Democratic Party that seems more like a gathering of microparties, from the Motorcycle Rights Caucus and the Environmental Caucus to the Progressive Populist Caucus and the Stem Cell Research Caucus. The exhibit hall has not one but two booths devoted to changing marijuana laws.
But six years ago, I don't remember a Pro-Life Democrats booth.
And I don't remember anything called a Christian Democratic Network, or the Network of Spiritual Progressives Caucus, which calls for restoring "religion and spirituality" to political leadership.
One of the top-selling Republican keepsakes at the state convention this weekend is a T-shirt with an unmistakable message of border bigotry: "Keep America Beautiful! Put Up the Wall!"
Three blocks from the Alamo and an earlier failed wall, Texas Republicans are building all sorts of barriers, dividing not only nations but also fellow Republicans.
The same souvenir stand is selling a button with a wishful thought: "Wouldn't It Be Great ... McCain-Perry 2008."
A Houston-area delegate wrinkled her nose.
"I think that stinks," Betty Callaway said.
"Both of them."
At their first state convention in 14 years without a George W. Bush to elect or re-elect, some Texas Republicans have returned to their feuding ways.
"McCain lacks character," Callaway said, adding that Gov. Rick Perry should not have signed off on a new business tax system.
"I don't have any use for him," she said, unfolding a campaign handout giving Perry credit for Texas congressional redistricting and saying that he "led the way to develop a new, fair map."
"When Tom DeLay was investigated over this, Perry didn't lift one finger to help," she said. "Now, he 'led the way?'"
If DeLay seemed like old news in a convention more worried about Laredo than Washington, Bush seemed almost like an opponent for his wall-free, worker-friendly immigration reform plan.
The "Keep America Beautiful" T-shirts were selling at a rate of about one per minute, according to vendor Jim Lewis of Blue Sky Advertising in Austin.
"People are buying three or four at a time," he said. "They want anything about the border."
On the other hand, the McCain-Perry button was a flop. Lewis brought 200 but had sold only a few.
"They don't like McCain's position on the border," he said. He made the button after reading McCain-Perry speculation on the Web, he said. "I thought people would like it. They don't."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the vendors' aisle in the convention center, three Houston Republicans sat almost shunned.
While delegates lined up at U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's booth -- where T-shirts called for protecting America's borders, language and "culture" -- almost nobody stopped to talk with representatives from the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.
In about 10 minutes, I saw only one person stop to talk with delegates from the largest organization for Hispanic Republicans. Some delegates walked around the stand in an obviously wide curve as if the booth featured live alligators.
"I've been cussed out a couple of times already," said Jerry Bustamante of Houston, secretary of the state RNHA.
Honesty time.
This delightful nugget is from a conservative interview with conservative novelist Michael P. Tremoglie (who styles himself another Natty Bumpo -- the Hawkeye of Last of the Mohicans. Check out the photo and decide for yourself):
I've been extremely lax about posting lately, despite the fact that there are lots of bright shiny factoids in the news lately that I could riff on. My excuse is that I've been working on a book, about the "War on Christmas" and larger "Culture War" that Fox News et al. keep trying to foist on the American people. Will it be published? Heck if I know. I'm just writing it, based on a few tea leaves suggesting it might have a chance.
Word today (h/t Salon via Atrios) that the government now is asking all American women to act as if they are pregnant, whether or not they actually are.
Jennifer Nix and Tristero have recently dug up some liberal corpses and induced them to speak by the necromatic power of the internets. What these corpses have to say from beyond the grave is sobering. Even with a majority, we cannot win. That's what they have been taught by their enemies, and that's what they have come to believe themselves.
They work for Karl Rove ... for free.
71% of America knows Bush is a failure, and yet the Democrats won't act. Maybe the Republicans were right about the Democrats, maybe they are the effete elite.
Obviously, the Democrats are disconnected from what the right likes to call "Real Americans." Real Americans hate Bush.
But, since the Democrats don't know anything about Real America, they give Bush a pass, allowing his joint assault on our people and our principles to rack up victory after victory of the minority over the majority. They'll tell you that Democrats must act like a minority even though we're a majority.
The failing print and TV media are at war with the blogsphere for the same reason: we are the America they don't know anything about.
Respectable Democrats are as weak, clueless, and ineffectual as the GOP needs them to be. A respectable Democrat wouldn't dare to be anything else. Who, after all, would be so uncouth and shrill as to actually take a stand for American values at a time when the enemies of those values are so weak?
"Values"? They will laugh in your face. Apparently the Republicans were right: Democrats have no values. Or at least the respectable ones don't. You see, it's important for any Democrat who wants to be taken seriously, by the GOP, by the media that's owned by the same people who own the GOP, and by the DLC, which is owned by the same people who own the GOP, it's important, I say, to live down to the stereotype of the wimpy, nihilistic Democrat.
Anything else would be uncivilized.
I’d shown up for dinner with a bounce in my step, charged up by a number of conservatives-with-cajones stepping forward to take the Bush administration to task over its unwarranted domestic spying program, and claims that W can break any law he finds inconvenient. Republicans like Bob Barr and Bruce Fein were even using the “I” word (and the very next day, George Will would weigh in with his two cents likening Bush to a monarch). I expected that my dinner partners, as progressive thought-leaders and purveyors of information, would be fired up, too. I looked forward to a rousing discussion of how to explain Bush’s law-breaking ways, to connect the dots, and bring historical perspective to recent events.
Alas, I found no urgency, no fervent desire to inform the citizenry of what all was at stake. Instead I was treated to smug defeatism, of the brand so popular today in Washington, DC, even though we were hunched over a tiny table at the House of Nan King in liberal San Francisco. You know the stuff. The political posturing: It’s a losing proposition for Democrats to support censure or impeachment. This Congress will never impeach Bush. We’ll look weak on security. Or the ever-comfortable, elitist stance: People don’t care about these issues. They only care about American Idol. I paraphrase, but you get the idea.
maybe the chandeliers should have tipped her off?
“Are we supposed to stand by and do nothing?” I asked.
They looked at me like I was a five-year-old. Or, perhaps the radical fringe. I remember the book editor saying, “We can only do what we can do.”
If, for instance, we were talking about Arabs in French Algeria learning to think of themselves as French (in French) and to show disdain for their ancestral culture, language, and people, we'd say such sad colonial converts have been "colonized." They have absorbed the values of their oppressors.
This is what's happened to the establishment Democrats in both the press and the government itself. They are incapable of fighting the GOP because they believe what the GOP has told them. You must endorse Bush's failure before you're allowed to talk about it. You must not challenge the premise. By refusing to challenge Bush's disasterous failure on national security, they live down to the stereotypes the GOP has carved out for them.
And they don't dare step outside.
Hazel: Dandelion, why don't you tell us the story of El-ahrairah?
Cowslip: El-ahrairah and his trickery don't really mean very much to us, charming as it is.
Hazel: Rabbits will always need tricks.
Cowslip: No, we need dignity, and above all, the will to accept our fate.
As one of our poets is fond of saying, if I may quote...
Hazel: - Yes, of course. - Please, do.
Cowslip: "Where are you going, stream?
Far, far away.
Take me with you, stream.
Take me on your dark journey.
Lord Frith, take me far away, to the hearts of light.
The silence. I give you my breath."
Respectable Democrats are offended that our response to the GOP's kind offer was nothing more than a sarcastic retort: "Yes, let's help ourselves to a roof of bones."
Such shocking behavior, to refuse the table-scraps offered us by that nice man Karl Rove. He's never as mean to us as the big bad blogsphere, so long as we stay in our place.
This is the meaningless discourse we call "respectable." It's meaningless because it's simply marketing, nothing more. To participate in it, you must reproduce its caricatures and ignore anything that doesn't already fit. You cannot and will not be admitted to the ranks of the professional journalists, commentators, or media consultants unless you are willing to merely repeat the approved story.
repeat the approved story, O Tom Bevan, and your name will echo here for eternity!
Polite people know that you cannot be strong on national defense unless you support the use of Iraq to strengthen our enemies and exhaust our military. The blogsphere knows this and this is why we are so profane. When polite discourse is merely used to discipline an otherwise useless generation of sops and milquetoasts to chant in unison, when it is a weapon used against you, the first thing you must attack is polite discourse itself ... which the blogsphere, instinctively, did.
Why am I so unimpressed with the respectable Democrat act? Why am I not taken in by the phony armchair geopolitics of the "liberal hawk"? Why do I not know my place as someone outside the halls of no doubt well educated power brokers? Well, like all the other regulars at Eschaton, I hold a Ph.D. I am intellectually intimidated by no one. Never have been. My training is in the historical application of religious and other discourses to the legitimation or de-legitimation of authority. I specialize in one country in one century, but I have to be able to teach matters spanning three continents over more than a thousand years. This makes me relatively bullshit proof. While I will always defer to the practical experience of the professional, I know what educated discourse sounds like and let me tell you, it's not polite, it's almost always confrontational. That's how you weed out the weak from the start. People in the Natural Sciences shout a lot, for some reason. Medievalists and archeologists are notorious drinkers. Math people are strangely impatient. The literary types almost never say what they mean, but rather expect you to glean what they mean by asking yourself "why did they say that?"
And, what's more, I'm an educator. All of us eggheads are equally engaged in the challenges of teaching (though some are more equal than others). What I know is useless unless I can apply it and pass it on. There is no excuse for not being able to explain anything to anyone, no matter their educational background. This is why I have nothing but black rage for the phony elitism of the pundits and the Democratic establishment: elitism is always a coward's cop-out of an argument he can't handle.
But, I guess, for phony intellectuals like George Will and Richard Cohen, we don't look like the intellectuals they see in the movies, so they're confused. They, at least, have the decency to act how they think an educated person would act.
So it doesn't matter how wrong they are.
We've been right and they've been wrong for years. Doesn't matter. We're not respectable.
If respectability means surrender, the first thing you must do is reject, in no uncertain terms, the prison your enemies are writing for you.
You must, in short, get in their fucking grill.
This made the wimps who flatter themselves that they are our leaders and gatekeepers very, very nervous. Their arrangement with their abusers is ... complicated and fragile. We who rattle their cages don't know what we're getting into.
We are mocked by those who have surrendered for not surrendering. They have access, in the sense that they have what their abusers see fit to give them, and they think that's the beginning and end of all status. Respectability.
But I will not respect a corpse.
He told us he supported the Bush/Iraq war because 9/11 was a wake-up call and it was inconceivable to him that the Bush administration would lie the United States into an invasion. Another reason: he had been in Cambodia and seen firsthand the capacity of human beings to do evil.
Well, I've never been to Cambodia, but I already knew about the capacity of humans to do evil. That's why I was never stupid enough to support this war.
"Okay, you were right. I 'll grant you that. You were right when the rest of us were wrong..."
Actually, only a minority of Americans supported the invasion (until the shooting actually started). Most of America and all of the world knew better. Here, the corpse is simply chanting one of Rove's satanic psalms.
Pathetic.
"No, no, let me ask you a question. How come you, a musician, maybe a good one, maybe a well-read one, but a musician with no training in affairs of state - how come you of all people were right about Iraq but the most respected, most experienced, most intelligent, most serious thinkers in the United States got it wrong?"
A mere musician? You know, someone who words with their hands? How could they possibly know anything? We, in our infinite wisdom, will tell you what's going on and even if we're wrong, at least we're respectable.
This is what I meant about elitism. When they realize the status they've humiliated themselves to attain is nothing but air they'll try to intimidate you with their Grandiose Nothings.
But "serious thinkers" like this idiot are just a bunch of mandarins. That's what their "training in affairs of state" reduced them to. They don't dare think at all. They read the same things, they say the same things, they look alike, they act alike, they dress alike, and all because they're scared shitless to think or act for yourselves. Those among "the most respected, most experienced, most intelligent, most serious thinkers in the United States" who came forward to oppose the war, for instance, were disciplined and marginalized and this "liberal hawk" is participating in that Stalinist excercise by pushing them down the memory-hole.
He honestly can't remember them.
They're easy to scare, easy to discipline, easy to exploit. Therefore, as intellectuals, they're useless. As weaponized wimps, aimed at their own country, however, they are the IED of the mind. They are deployed in a war of attrition against you.
We, the great unwashed, are better informed and more educated than our sniffing so-called superiors in the press and the Democratic establishment. This they can ignore by pointing out that we use the f-word a lot.
Yes, that's what passes for argument in the press and the Democratic establishment.
