What's the Purpose of VichyDems?

Ever since the filibuster fight I've been thinking hard about what role VichyDems can play in the liberal blog community. We did a lot of good on the Alito front -- we may have lost that war, but a lot of D senators got the message that their base is getting ancy and that they need to attend to it. Tens of thousands of phone calls were made by people using our Game Plans and calling lists, which makes me proud as hell.

But what now?

While it's tempting to generally whale on Bush, preach about automated voting, etc., I'm very aware that there are a lot of voices out there already talking about those topics much more knowledgeably, and to a much larger audience, than I am. In keeping with Dirty Harry's excellent advice ("A man's got to know his limitations"), I'm trying to keep this site focused on the Vichy issue.

As I've thought about it, I see three ways we can do that:

1. Identifying Vichys in office (Lieberman, Cuellar) or trying to get into office (Casey), and letting them know we have our eye on them;

2. Identifying and helping their opponents (Ned Lamont, Ciro Rodriguez, Bob Pennacchio); and

3. When key votes arise that require Democrats to vote as a bloc, working (as we did during the Alito campaign) to encourage the Vichys and fence-sitters to hang with the Party and following up those lobbying efforts by publicizing their votes, rewarding the faithful, and "consequencing" the disloyal.

Does that sound right to people? This is your site; I sincerely think of myself as working for you. If you've been visiting this site with any regularity at all, please leave a comment with your thoughts about whether this is the right direction for VichyDems to go.

Thanks!