In this country, the so-called "opposition" is too polite to actually oppose the march of Autocracy. No, instead it has ceaselessly acted to enable and/or authorize such a march. There have been some pro-forma skirmishes over marginal details now and then. Most of such struggle as there has been, however, has been over the Executive's consistent "insults" toward traditional Congressional prerogatives. Law? Constitution? Fringe notions at best. Both parties have actively collaborated in the installation and consolidation of an Autocratic executive. And I have no reason to doubt they will continue their productive collaboration in the face of the threat to their cooperation and prerogatives, the insult, indeed, the Court has rendered here. -- Ché Pasa

That polite, productive Democratic Party collaboration - in the name of compromise and comity, but above all (see the unConstitutional, but oh-so-bipartisan 2006 Military Commissions Act) behind the soothing rhetoric of "bipartisanship" - with the Executive Branch leadership's autocratic demands that the people be prevented from influencing the actions of their government continues, seamlessly and uninterrupted:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, yesterday, 6/12/08, at her weekly news conference:

Reporter: "You mentioned Chairman [Dave] Obey's talking to the White House about the [Iraq] supplemental. Is the Senate part of those discussions in a meaningful way? Meaning, when you get something will it be something that will pass both houses that can be signed, or are you making a deal with the White House that will then ping-pong with the Senate...?

.

Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House: "No, no. No, I would hope that.. We don't have that much time left. There are two and a half weeks until we recess. We will have a bill sent to the president by then, and it will have to be a bill that can pass in the House and in the Senate and signed by the president. So we're not doing anything that we don't think has - there's communication with the Senate, to answer your question."

Reporter: "So you're [negotiating] a final package this time - you're not gonna bounce it back and forth...?"

Nancy Pelosi: "Well, I can't answer for the behavior of the Republicans in the United States Senate. That I cannot answer for. What I can answer for is that Democrats understand our responsibility, that we want a bill [to fund the occupation of Iraq] that can be signed by the president. That's why we are putting together lean legislation that is not overloaded and attract a veto by the president. I would hope that the Republicans in the Senate would respect that, those priorities as well. I will vote against the funding of the war without any timelines for redeployment of our troops. Others will vote for it and that will go to the president.

In addition we will have a GI Bill for the 21st century - say thank you to our troops, send them to college. In addition we will have some measure of Medicaid fixes in the legislation. You know all of this - it's not going to be anything new to you. But, um, but hopefully we can get the unemployment insurance freestanding - we'll see and then we'll make a judgement after that. What I've told you is not exhaustive of what is going to be in the bill. But is some of the key points of it. So in about two and a half weeks, we'll be on our way to celebrate the birth of our nation. By that time we hope to have unemployment insurance going out to America's working families; we hope to have a supplemental bill [funding, no strings attached, another year of the Iraq occupation] signed by the president, and more to come in terms of some energy legislation that we'll tell you about as that unfolds. Thank you all very much."

rtsp://video1.c-span.org/15days/e061208_pelosi.rm

By the time your beloved polls start reflecting the change in national mood toward the Democratic Party (as compared to the Republican Party), Dear Lady, it will be too late. Your "don't have much time left" is truer than you know. You and your party have much, much less time left than you suppose, if you and Dave Obey and Harry Reid help George Bush get his way - every inch of the way, all the way through - on the unconscionable, bipartisan occupation of Iraq.