In these sad, sorry days of dwindling rational discourse, it is not often I find myself nodding approvingly over the editorial page of the Washington Post, but today is an exception.

To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all.

This is as reckless as it was unnecessary…

The administration will no doubt again play the national security card. Democratic leaders say they want to move quickly to fix the damage. If only we could be more confident that they won't get rolled again.

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“Won’t get rolled again” is exactly the right theme for the work that’s ahead of us to restore some basic sanity and sense to not only this legislation, but to the Democrats in Congress who just lay down and get run over - repeatedly.

Cue the music:

We'll be fighting in the streets

With our children at our feet

And the morals that they worship will be gone

And the law that spurred us on

Its judgment oh so wrong

Left us no choice but to sing this song:

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution

Take a bow for the new revolution

Smile and grin at the change all around

Look at Congress and say

This can’t be like yesterday

Then I'll get on my knees and pray

We don’t get rolled again.

No, no! .

With all due apologies to you know Who.

So, in terms of result -- assuming those are relevant -- why is it not time to concede to the pessimists, hmmm?

Oh really, Mona, sackcloth and ashes do not become you.

Christy Hardin Smith has a post up about discussing this sad state of affairs over pizza with Digby, Glenn Greenwald, Barbara O’Brien, TRex, Swopa, Sara, David Neiwert, Tom Matzzie of MoveOn, and Jane Hamsher.

We started talking about how we had all been trying to get that across to various Democratic party players and strategists and pundits and what-have-you, and to a person we were just stunned at how little coordination there was across the board on any sort of unified strategic vision other than “we’re not Republicans, so vote for us.” And that is simply not enough.

But she isn’t shutting down the blog, throwing her hands in the air and moaning that there’s no difference between Dick Durbin and John Yoo, and all is lost. No, she came back from that demoralized group and said:

I’ve been thinking a lot about where we go from here. We all have. And I’m sure coming out of this weekend, a lot of us will be writing about it and thinking and talking — and acting. Lew Koch and I talked at length on Friday morning about how 99 percent of life is simply getting up off your ass and doing something — that success or failure can depend on something as simple as just trying to move something forward.

I think that the Democratic Party players and strategists are about to be confronted by angry bloggers and activists, grabbed by their lapels, and shaken and stirred.

Poor Chris Dodd probably thought the interview with Glenn went well. He has no idea.

What’s next I don’t know, but I do know that this vote will be a catalyst for action, coordination and strategy forced upon establishment Democrats who should have doing this all along.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/08/05/stopjust-stop/

I sometimes think it would be nice to have a Democratic congress as single-minded in it's action as the Rovian R's, but I'm not sure I want to see a Democratic party as focused as the current Republicans. ~ Armagednoutahere

I agree completely, and I think that this single-mindedness (along with hubris) will be their downfall. Their purism is appealing to fewer and fewer people, and their smears and insults now apply to a majority of Americans.

Dodd described the Democratic Party and frogs jumping out of a wheelbarrow, while the Republicans increasingly resemble mindlessly marching humanoid Lemmings.

Look at the hubris of Bill Kristol today. He sees the Democrats on the run and in retreat in every way. But his victories are pure propaganda victories that cannot withstand the reality of what is actually happening in Iraq. It’s all stagecraft, and more and more people are catching on. And even their propaganda victories (Beauchamp) are illusions that don’t apply outside the bubble.

I don’t expect to ever the Democrats to march in goose-stepping unison, but they can at least form a legislative strategy, and coordinate their actions a lot more than they do now.

There’s already a list of “Blue Dogs” in safe districts that need to be targeted in the primaries, and some of them will have to go. That’s a far cry from the Rovian purges that have radicalized and reduced the Republican Party to what it has become today, but it’s a necessary step.

What is also very important is for the Democrats to take on the corrupt MSM and reinforce what bloggers have been doing for some time. We need to have some of them openly challenge the questions that reflect GOP talking points. We need to see Tim Russert speechless as a Democrat aggressively takes him to task for something he’s said.

It’s going to be a long struggle, with no easy answers.

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