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• Thursday, July 31, 2008 01:16 PM

  where to begin?

  Let us ignore all of the arguments that Kilgore himself lamely shrugs off later in the article, when he gets to the most insidious of his arguments: the irrelevancy of the net-roots in an Obama administration. He claims that none of this "vengeful" activism will matter in an Obama administration because the White House and Congress will be pulling in the same direction. See, this is the precise problem. Obama has already communicated his loyalty to Democratic leadership in Congress, the same Congress that has let the Blue Dog swing vote dominate their agenda. This puts him at odds with the activist base of the party. Now, normally such a situation would be politically unstable, but Democrats have been scared so thouroughly by the authoritarian right that Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Hoyer believe that they can continue to appease Bush supporters on national security questions. And yes, even after Bush is gone there will still be Bush supporters in our government who will argue that the terrorist threat is too great to dismantle Bush's authoritarian machinations, and they will have a sympathetic and supportive audience in both Republicans AND Blue Dogs. I enthusiastically support Glenn's and Jane Hamsher's efforts to provide leftward pressure to the Democrats by targeting Blue Dogs. It's the most rational way for the left to send its message to the Democrtic leadership, and it will serve to oppose the Bush right during the post-Bush era.

  —cjackb Read cjackb's other letters
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