That's because you're not dealing with liberals, you're dealing with partisan Democrats. What that actually means is deliberately vague and open to debate, but after watching them (at dKos and elsewhere) for a couple of years, my gut feeling is that the dominant type of partisan Democrat would have been completely comfortable with the Democratic Party of 1965. That is, they are more liberal than Republicans, but not in any way you'd notice if you're not a middle-class white guy. They seem to be operating on the belief that substantial progress is not possible anymore, and they are desperately looking for non-essentials to jettison in order to retrench around their core value: the welfare of middle-class white guys. They are theoretically in favor of improving the lot of the poor, women, and minorities (and maybe even gays), but not at the expense of the Core Value.

It's a testament to the phenomenal egos of middle-class white guys that they haven't quite flashed on the fact that the poor, women, minorities, and gays, collectively, are a majority of the population. They are aware of Republican divide-and-conquer tactics, but unaware that they have fallen for the biggest divide-and-conquer tactic of them all. I think they really believe that the Republican Christo-fascist juggernaut will stop when it is done with all of the nonessential special-interest groups. You're either with the middle-class white guys, or you're Czechoslovakia. Too bad that middle-class white guys are Poland.

This is why Democrats are no longer guaranteed my vote by default. It so happens that I am a middle-class white guy, but I'm not a Christian, and I have no doubt that when the Republicans and their Democratic appeasers are done putting the poor, gays, women, and minorities "back in their place", they'll be coming for me next. Give me a Democratic liberal, and I'll vote for her or him. Give me another party hack, and I'll find a new party.

---Cthulhu for President: Why vote for the lesser evil?

I don't trust Nagin. That said, I'm glad he said what he said. I don't like that he is coziing up to Bush, and scapegoating Blanco. Nagin bears much responsibility for not getting the people out of harms way before the storm. On Meet the Press he blamed the lack of drivers. bullshit. Morial got the people out on buses before Hurricane George.

We'll see if he is strong enough to withstand the enormous pressure to eliminate low-income housing in New Orleans. I have my doubts...

We're mobilizing here to fight this, and you can help by continuing to cover the issue.