At first I really liked Kos' declaration on his front page: Any dem who associates with Steve Elmendorf is going to get outed (I hope Kos follows through on this one).

But, ooh, burning in effigy and firebranding is very very good, too.  Or, have you seen the giant inflatable rats that the union guys park in front of offending businesses (there was one in front of the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle for about three months)?  I'd love to park one on Elmendorf's DC suburban lawn.

Susan, that they are mentioning us at all means they're getting tremendous pressure from their constituents to support a filibuster.  I had to make numerous phone calls this morning to various local offices for Clinton and Schumer just to find one that didn't have its voicemail inbox already full.  That should tell you something.  These people (the beltway, lobbyist, in-crowd dems) are running scared.  No surprise they would run to WaPo to find a willing partner in dissing us.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

At best, Mr. Elmendorf is being intellectually dishonest with these remarks.  He is portraying this as a horse race, an election contest, which only he is skilled enough and qualified enough and experienced enough to comment upon.

Or direct.

Otherwise, the Dems might lost the next election.

Mr. Elmendorf, the Dems have lost the last three national elections, steadily lost them, under your kind of direction.

What's happening out here in the nation at large is a groundswell of disgust and disapproval for Bush, Congress, and your kind of inside the Beltway expertise.

What's coming your way is not the usual trending and polling and mood shifts of the electorate.  We are angry out here, one and all, and we are coming for the shepherds, including you.

You. Are. Fired.

Frames exist within larger frames. Draw a larger frame around your opponent's frame; he will appear wrong or insufficient. This is how wizards play.

Great post Susan. Democrats.com has "Saturday Updates." My friend Bob Shields describes as "the latest news, unfiltered by the Bush lap-dogs in the national media."


howieinseattle

What I don't understand is how these guys seem to be stuck in the 90's thinking we're talking about BILL CLINTON vs George HW BUSH. Those tactics worked then. But things have changed!! The Republicans have moved so far out of the mainstream since then that using them to gauge the "middle" is leading them to "triangulate" away our constitution. They seem to be living in such a bubble that they don't see the reality of NOW. We're not even talking about liberal and progressive anymore (I always want to laugh when people refer to Howard Dean as liberal!!!) We're talking about the basic values of democracy!!

Doesn't information itself have a liberal bias? Steven Colbert

What Elmendorf means is:  "The trick is to harness their energy and their money without representing them."

"a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign." He is clearly among those who turned victory into defeat with advice just like what he's peddling now: don't make waves, don't offend anybody, go along to get along. The party has been following that advice for more than a decade and getting its ass kicked 24/7.

"vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience"!!? Sorry guy, trying just don't cut it -- succeeding does, and that's exactly what these losers-turned-pundit have never been able to do. Kerry lost because nobody knew what, if anything, he stood for. So now we get idiots like Elmendorf prescribing the same old pill. Forget him, forget Donna Brazille, forget all the old losers.

The Romans used to exile their losing generals. It's long past time for the Democratic Party to do the same.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

fiery liberals raising their voices on Web sites and in interest groups vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience.

The biggest problem to me is that our elected officials don't really stand for anything so absolutely no one in that "much broader audience" cares at all. That is the diametric opposite of the strategy republicans used to take power.

On a positive note, I realized a few days ago that I'm still registered to vote in Florida so Nelson is technically my senator. Time for phone calls on Monday. He may be a lost cause, but chances are millions of times better than with Shelby or Sessions.

Alito is going to put a lot of them out of work.

Really--Alito, not angry activists.

The economy itself has made up its mind--it only needs one political party. It's funding Republicans 3:1 or more, maybe much more (I'm not up on my stats). The only way Dean has been able to raise half as much money for Democrats as Republicans get is by tapping millions of individuals--workers, retirees, dependents and consumers.

If the Party decides--or is Constitutionally forced--to cut back services to the people, there's literally no use for them. The economy has its party.

For better or worse Democratic leaders, you're in steerage with us rabble. They don't want you on the promenade deck any more than they want us.

We at least will hire you, if you'll work for us.

We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King, "Beyond Vietnam"

This is may a tad over-optimistic, but Joshua Holland on Alternet says, "Filibuster coming within reach!"He has all the names and numbers, too, tho he has Obama still listed as Undecided. A recent commentor on Democrats.com claims Jim Lehrer said that the Senator from Illinois is now pro-filibuster.
 
He also quotes Atrios, thusly:
"Cruising into Tuesday evening next week there will be two possible storylines:  
1) The Democrats are a bunch of losers, as are all of their supporters. Bush and his giant codpiece looked magnificent at the state of the union, and Mrs. Alito was very happy and smiling sitting next to Mrs. Bush safe and content now that the magnificent and mighty President Bush made that bad Ted Kennedy go away.
 

2) The Democrats shocked Washington today by holding together, dropping a mighty turd in the punchbowl of the Bush administration, dealing a deadly blow to his nomination of Alito. The president won't be too happy tonight as he gives the 2006 state of the union speech.
 

Those are the choices."


howieinseattle

Those of you who are inclined might want to express your views regarding the US practice of kidnapping the wives and children of individuals who are suspected of opposing US policies.

one man's conspiracy is another man's business plan
Blog updated as needed

"Liberals sometimes become so self righteous and so convinced of their own purity that they sound like nothing so much as extreme Christian conservatives."

Been seeing this word used a lot lately - mostly by rollover Dems who would rather spend their time lecturing progressives for a supposed lack of tolerance than fighting conservatives for their insidous agenda.

But you know something?  If being a 'purist' means refusing to tolerate:

• Support for an illegal and immoral war,
  
• Failure to oppose a far right ideologue for Supreme Court Justice,
  
• Blithe acceptance of the continuing destruction of American civil liberties,

to name but a few...

Then yeah, I'm a purist.  Why aren't you?

A statement of conscience calling the war "an unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq" has been signed by 99 bishops and more than 5,000 members of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the land.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/churches.iraq.reut/
Approval for war?

http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

Think the country heading in the right direction?

http://www.pollingreport.com/right.htm

I could do this all day long, we are the center! We are the majority!

"Before you knew the word 'dream' and the word 'fire' you dreamed of fires" Lisel Mueller

I'm so mad at Elmendorf I just had to come back and take another swing.  He's another one of those fools who thinks that if you're more submissive and more compliant, you'll win.  He could'nt be more wrong.

In the animal world when a dog is attacked by an opponent of superior strength he rolls over to expose his belly, and if he's REALLY submissive he pees.  That's what Elmendorf wants Democrats to be...belly-up peeing dogs.  What we need to be doing is looking so fierce that nobody wants to upset us.

That burns me up (and I'm burning up already from the slight fever I've got to go along with this damn cold). It's like he (and the Powers That Be) are saying, "Come work for us, come give us your dollars...but then go back to making your little protest signs while we make the REAL decisions."

Well, Stevie boy, you've lost my energy. And you've lost my money...just when I actually have some extra to spare. I'll send money to and work for individual candidates who I feel represent my interests and the interests of those like me: those who believe in a woman's right to choose what's best for her health, those who believe in ending this immoral war, those who fight for the least of my brothers and sisters. But not one more dime for the Democratic Loser Council and their attitude of supporting the status quo.

I'm fucking mad now...see my new sig...

Not one dollar more...

Fiery?!?  Damn straight!  (but first, coffee...to much fun in the cafe last night)

We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit - Octavio Paz / Latino Político

I mistakenly typed Janet Strange instead of Damnit Janet as the BooTribber who went to the Code Pink event last night in Portland.

Hickok: "You know the sound of thunder. Can you imagine that sound if I ask you to? Ma'am, listen to the thunder."

carter, mondale, dukakis, kerry and gore all did their own "good fight" thing ...

frankly, I have ZERO interest in such "good fights".

fighting is about winning, and you win cuz you kick the other fuckers ass AND MAKE THEM LOSE!

the bushco people do NOT want anyone but their aristocrat brats to have an education, health care, pay that can be spent outside the company store ...

a good fight against these people is a waste of time.

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

why are the Dems being painted into a corner where one of the only active subsets of the party is bad subset?

why are they being painted into a corner so that ANY idea which benefits ANYONE with AGI under 500 grand a year is a bad idea?

cuz they ain't got any message.

(well, actually - they kind of do have a message - other than howard & murtha and 6 or 165 others -

the message is kind of the Junior Achievement of Rove, Ailes and Atewater. )

I wouldn't piss on this guy if he was on fire - I'd respect him if he was honest about being a toady for the rich.

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

Hi susan:

Thanks for the link...I think maybe you missed my point--I support the filibuster fight! It's a debate about tone not tactics. We likely agree on    
many issues--why do you presume that I'm wobbly-kneed when I've been fightin "the good fight" for 30 years? Are you trying to offend your allies--trying to make heretics or converts? I replied here--Boos at Booman Tribune.

My point was simple: keep fighting the good fight--just try not to be such an ass about it! Bullying, as Bush has learned, just doesn't work.

Best to you,

FP